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[As usual, a small stack of paper is on Sora's desk, a pen atop it; a small black notebook sits next to the stack. Unusually for her, though, this one seems to be taking her longer; she seems to just stare into space sometimes while she's supposedly writing. Feel free to review the letter or the notebook, though she'll be some combination of angry and embarrassed if you're caught with the latter. ((This letter is IC; there's a standard, AC-friendly list of activity below it.))]
Professor Himesaki,
Um. I don't know how to even begin. I... I'm just going to start my report.
I'm sure you're aware, but I reported a number of morale issues on the team, many involving Hana, and being traceable to Seiren and myself. With the help of Tsukasa, we determined it was time to put those issues to rest. The resulting group therapy session mostly just brought something out into the open that we already knew: Hana needed a better grip on what she is - what we are. We're soldiers. That's a lesson I needed to learn myself, and while I'm not proud of it, one Seiren taught me handily. She's... still a little too coarse for my sensibilities, but I've seen enough by now that I can understand what she's teaching me. As much as I complain about her, as much as I hate what tends to happen to Hana when she's around... I appreciate that she's willing to help us.
Tsukasa gave us assignments to improve our teamwork, either with each other or with any given pilot; I took my copy back to my room while I reflected on things. Julia stopped by to see how the session went, which made me happy, considering I haven't talked to her much lately. After a few words with her about our team dysfunction, I went ahead to the kitchens for duty as assigned; I found a new pilot there, Mobius One (I assume it's a codename), who flies a fighter plane. She was looking to join the kitchen staff herself, if not for the same reason as I was; she seemed nice enough. Kamille was hanging around doing his own work, and eventually Hoshi Hikari found me, the person I'd been assigned to work under; I found out later she's a Kamen Rider, like Tsukasa and a few of the others. I hung around the kitchen for the rest of my assigned shift, though I didn't get a chance to talk to the other Desu pilots while I was down there. They kept me busy!
A few days passed, and there was a sortie, codenamed "Separation ~ Assimilation". Kamille had deployed; I was worried as I normally tend to be while he's out fighting for us, but shortly before he returned I just had this overwhelming feeling of dread. I don't know what caused it, I'm not sure I ever will, but it felt... bad. I rushed down to the hangar to greet him, and found a broken Zeta Gundam and Kamille in a dark mood. Apparently they'd had to leave someone behind to make their escape, and she'd sacrificed herself to make sure the thing they'd been fighting, a stronger version of the Festum, didn't pursue. From the tale he told of the monsters they'd fought, honestly, one sacrifice was a fair price for the safety of the Chalice, and the human race. (I also discovered that Luger had snuck over to the wrecked Zeta and left grafitti on it; I haven't yet showed him what I do to people that insult my important people through me.)
He'd mentioned someone else though, someone that "wasn't all there" after fighting those things. I looked around the hangar and eventually found Mobius One standing next to the wreck of her plane. The combination of what I understand to be attempted Festum assimilation and someone having given herself up to save the team had hit her hard. I tried to console her, to say anything that could help her move past it, but... it was hard, trying to reassure someone that everything would be fine when I'd only gone out for two sorties, and I'd lost something major in each of them. I don't think it worked, and after a little while I left her alone to grieve.
Shortly after that, Seiren contacted Hana and I to let us know that she'd reconstructed the course for her "special" training, which both of us had been sentenced to. We appeared for Seiren's unique brand of torture - you've seen that course, right? I heard a rumor she set it up for April Fool's Day one year as an attraction - and after a few questions to make sure we understood everything, we began. The intial obstacle course was finished surprisingly quickly; Hana and I together managed to clear it without too much difficulty. Similarly, we managed the physical stamina battery quickly, though it was close. The last stage, though... as usual, was combat against Seiren. I'll admit, most of that day is a blur; there's a big section I can only get pieces of, then I have a clear memory of saying something to Seiren as my head hit the floor, and then I came to several hours later in my own room, my entire body screaming.
I spent the next day and a half taking it easy and waiting for the pains to ease to a dull ache; I was feeling mostly better by the time Hana was done with her last day of training. I went to go visit her late that afternoon... and found a blue-haired mummy. There's no better way to describe it. She was wrapped up in bandages over most of her body... it didn't look good. She didn't have much to say, either; she was in too much pain. After a joke from her, I decided it might be a good idea to see about an ice bath to make everything stop aching for a few minutes, and left to go find someone with actual medical authority to approve the idea. A few minutes later I was back in Hana's room and carrying her carefully down the hall toward the bathing area. Along the way, we chatted about a few things; namely, that I was still worried I'd disgusted her or something when she found me with Kamille that one time. She had a similar worry about herself and Eri, and... we came to an understanding. So that's one less worry on my mind.
I returned to my room with wet, rolled-up sleeves, to find Seiren working on her reports. We discussed Hana's training - I still don't know how she survived having to repeat the obstacle course for four hours - and I eventually noticed a date circled on Seiren's calendar. I hadn't realized it was her birthday; I suspect she wouldn't have taken well to most of us trying to do anything for her, but nothing was stopping me from remembering it, at least.
We began preparations to return to space the next day; shortly before we departed, a new pilot came aboard, one Michelle Fournier, and a blue robot called Pandora. I'd found her looking over a large kit of tools, presumably to assure everything was there, and we talked about the virtues of working for a company that wants to ensure everything's in order before you leave, rather than us with our Desu units, where we're trained in maintenance but we don't bring much in the way of specialized parts for repair; and about her employer, and our impending trip to space. We were both excited about it, considering we both came from relatively tame places before this (home in my case; Fairy Park is anything but tame).
The next day after that was Seiren's birthday; apparently Laura had invited her to some sort of function between just the two of them, and I ran into her along the way. I... said something that came out weird, and I think I made Seiren mad. Once we came to an understand of what I actually meant, I left her alone before I made her mood worse.
It was around this time that the Chalice made preparations to meet with key officers of the Federation in the interest of shutting down the Titans once and for all at the Konpei Island facility in space. I was along as part of the escort party to bring one Blex Forer to the tribunal, and eventually we sent him on in a civilian mobile suit to attend; we were invited to watch over a video feed. As Blex began his speech, there was a loud explosion that ripped apart the podium he was standing at... and when the smoke cleared, a Percolatis - a huge bug-like being - was standing in his place. Apparently Blex had been dead this whole time, and the Titans didn't take kindly to the seeming double-cross, declaring us under arrest, and mobilizing mobile suits to fight us when we didn't submit. That kicked off the operation later codenamed "Colliding War Zones" as we deployed to defend ourselves; I launched in Desu Itsuki.
Things started relatively simply. Several top Titans officers were around to see us killed, and we fought back. The highlight was the huge black monstrosity Kamille later identified as the Psyco Gundam, which I attempted to assault with the Gold Forte Burst, the strongest offensive skill available to Desu Itsuki... which it ignored, and promptly punished my trying by damaging the hand holding the Itsuki Tambourine. I'm still not sure how that happened. Combat went on in this way for a little bit longer, until the rules were changed when one Admiral Delaz, formerly of Zeon, now a rogue element, appeared with several ships, out to fight both our own ships and those of the Federation. To that end, he had a trump card: Anavel Gato in his GP-02, thought dead, and still carrying at least one nuclear warhead, up here in space where N-Jammer technology didn't reach. As Delaz ordered the strike, every single Federation vessel took measures to shoot it down... and all failed, as the warhead struck Konpei Island, wiping out most of its personnel in one shot.
I admit, that was not one of my better moments. I just sat there watching. The flash haunted my dreams for weeks; it still does, sometimes. As it cleared, the Titans were as horrified as we were; the fight became an all-out brawl, with us in the middle. There wasn't a whole lot I could do with what I had on the Itsuki; I tried to stick to ranged solutions, but I nearly shot down an allied pilot in my trying to help, and I didn't manage to make any sizable contribution in the later half of the battle. Eventually there was no choice but for us to run, as Paptimus Scirocco appeared with an army of Mobile Dolls to clear everyone out, and our only remaining option was to retreat or die.
My return back to the Chalice was... hurt, angry, confused. I don't really remember most of it, though I do remember Gainer, one of the two professional gamers aboard the ship, trying to reach out to me and figure out what was wrong. Eventually I had to stop talking to him; I got too emotional and I could feel the Itsuki's control slipping away from me. Once I hit the hangar, I took off running back into the Chalice proper, a sobbing mess, and eventually I tripped, and just stayed there in a heap, crying my eyes out. Everyone was so supportive, though... it helped a lot. Hana tried to distract me with the arboretum, Julia reminded me that PreDesu units aren't really built to fight super robots, and I think I made Michelle worry when I mentioned I hadn't trained that long for flying Desu Itsuki, all things considered.
After I calmed down enough to move, I headed for a quiet place I could look out into space; I didn't want to hand around my own room or the arboretum, both Seiren's typical haunts, as I half-expected her to have something to say about my performance. She did not, as I found when she visited me; she was actually concerned after what she'd heard had happened, which made me happy. Mobius One tried to return the favor from after her disastrous fight against the Festum, and Laura reminded me that we were a little outmatched out there... thinking back now, there were a lot of mobile suits out there. And eventually Kamille found me, which I both wanted and dreaded; I felt like I'd let him down. He talked me out of that, though, and when I expressed anger at their so-called Spirit of Zeon, he explained the different between "Zeon" - Delaz's splinter faction - and Axis Zeon, the faction Lady Haman Karn operates, which I didn't know and made me feel somewhat better about being on a ship with Zeon officers. I just took it easy the rest of the evening; I don't remember where I eventually ended up sleeping.
In the following day or two, I had a few loose ends to tie up; one was Werter making a statement about the horrors Zeon had brought to bear against humankind. I talked to him about that for a little bit; it still hadn't hit me that Delaz being a splinter faction meant I just needed to find him, rather than deal with Zeon as a whole. That would make justice quite a bit easier. The other thing was seeing how Char had managed after the fight; he'd had to deal with vacuum exposure, so he'd been rushed to the infirmary as the battle was ending. He awoke the next day, but he'd been fairly disheartened. He mentioned something I hadn't thought of - Lady Karn herself was out there with us at the time the nuke went off. Zeon would be thrown into chaos had she been injured or killed in the blast, let alone in the battle afterward. That... scared me. For that matter, what if they'd shot at the Chalice? All of us... wiped out in an instant. That thought horrified me for some time after I left Char.
My mood improved over the the next few days; the biggest thing that happened was the return of Alexei, who had apparently been in the Wahrheit for the month since I'd seen him last. I'd learned enough from kitchen duty with Hoshi and the others that I could manage a passable meal without help, and so when Alexei expressed he was hungry from spending so long in there, I dragged him to the kitchen to catch him up on the events he'd missed, from around the time Kamille and I became an item to the events with Zeon, the Titans, and Delaz a few days prior. He'd listened to it all as he ate, and seemed to shrug it off as not-unexpected goings-on... though he mentioned he was happy for Kamille and I, which pleased me. I'm still surprised he doesn't hate either of us for... that time.
And then we deployed for a more emergency-based sortie; a group of anti-capital mobile suits were in front of the Chalice and set to ram us during a resupply at a colony, so it was up to us to destroy them, and I launched in Itsuki to protect the ship, in a sortie later designated "DUNE Steps Into the Light". They went down fairly quickly, so there wasn't much issue, even though there was something weird with one of our Gundams; I think the pilot switched out or something, but we only found out when a big crab mecha came from around the colony and grabbed it. In any case, we were able to start taking care of the ambush... and then something appeared. Something that terrified me. Bursting out of the colony came a huge humanoid unit that Eri identified as DUNE. Why he was here, I'll never know, but... the enemy of all PreDesu, sitting in front of us. Even if we were hopelessly outmatched, what choice did we have but to fight?
Hana and Eri, in the Endless units Blanc and Noir, were able to keep up with him, but... I kept getting thrown into the colony we were resupplying from; my back still hurts from all that. Eventually help appeared: a silver PreDesu unit, eventually identified as Desu Tsukikage. The pilot helped us deal with DUNE; but eventually we were being pushed back, and Eri decided enough was enough, and began to unseal the Endless units from the WEARE system that held their power back. The Dual Aurora Wave lit up the wastes of space, and the glory of Blanc and Noir was revealed once more; immediately thereafter, we all joined together for one big attack to try and take DUNE out once and for all. The power of the Extreme Luminario... is astounding to see first-hand. Everything else looked like we were firing popguns compared to its absurd destructive ability. And... we did it, somehow. That was enough to destroy DUNE. I still find it hard to believe, but... we won. The Tsukikage's pilot collapsed right afterward, though, so our celebrating was cut short as we returned to the Chalice.
Eri and Hana handled the transportation of Desu Tsukikage and its pilot, so when I made it back to the hangar, I was free to get out of the Itsuki and... feel happy with my work, for once. Nobody died, and I actually did something! It was such a great feeling...! I set some time aside to talk to POTPOURRI too; I'd been ignoring him lately, and I felt bad about it. While I made peace with my AI, Kamille returned; apparently he'd been out covering other parts of the ship, and without fanfare he got out of the Zeta Gundam, made a declaration of his awesomeness, and kissed me again. Not that I minded at all... but I think I think POTPOURRI was jealous, and as soon as Kamille was out of the way he attached himself to my face. I spent some time trying to pry him off, and Kamille and I talked for a little while, and I told him he was important to me, and he said I was important to him, and... I think we're closer now.
After I got away from Kamille I found Seiren, whom I'd been meaning to look for; we hadn't seen her during the mission, and I was worried. Apparently Desu Ellen had malfunctioned just as she'd tried to launch, and she didn't get it repaired in time. She'd mentioned something about "Infinity", but I didn't ask about it aside from trying to remember what the term meant. I think she said it was the Project's prophet? Something like that... I probably should remember that, but then again, I have nothing against just taking things as they come.
And speaking of new things coming out of the Project, Ciel arrived on the Chalice shortly after that sortie. She doesn't seem to have changed much; still cold to everyone, for sure. I met up with her the evening of her arrival, and I think I managed to make at least some kind of impression on her; I'm starting morning training with her so she can evaluate my skill. I'm not entirely certain what she thinks of me, but I'm going to put everything I have into it. She certainly doesn't think much of... well... Eri or Hana. She knows Seiren well enough, and we all know Katsumi by now. Ciel doesn't think much of me either, but I said enough to make her notice, I think.
After that was a brief visit to Seattle Colony, Julia's home for quite a while, that she'd been away from for a few years now. There was a big crowd waiting for her, which she seemed happy about... but she was thinking about the old days, too. When the Irgelion Empire was seeking to conquer the Earth Sphere. Let alone that now the two of us, former Irgelion citizens ourselves, were serving on a warship dedicated to saving the Earth Sphere. It's... jarring. But I think she enjoyed herself, so I'm happy for her.
That just brings me to the last day or two. A new pilot broadcast a challenge to us; one Maddox Caine. He... seemed fairly crass. Poor language, poor opinions on a lot of things. A day later, he came aboard, and I found myself unimpressed. Alongside the other things, he seems to have an odd dislike for women serving in a combat capacity, which annoyed me. I replied to his video message with what I realize now was a fairly stinging remark, mostly standing up for my gender, which seemed to terrify him, and he disconnected before I could get another word in edgewise.
And last off... Alexei. The League of Ruling Corporations sent us a briefing for a new mission, to destroy the Arms Fort Great Wall. It... looks like a train, but several times larger, much more massive, and with guns and missile turrets everywhere. As soon as the briefing came, Alexei got... weird. He went to load up the Wahrheit with enough ammunition to take down a space colony, with a manic feeling about him. I went to ask him about it... I didn't realize it before, but he's been a LYNX - a pilot for the League's Armored Core NEXTs - for at least ten years now. He served the lost corporation Rayleonard in the LYNX War back then, and scheming by the other corporations, particularly Global Armaments, brought that group down, leaving Alexei the last LYNX of Rayleonard. He bears that title proudly... and it's the reason he's worked for COLLARED this last decade: waiting for a chance at revenge. I'm worried something will happen, but... I trust him not to get in over his head. I'm more worried about the Closed Plan he was going on about, but he doesn't know anything about it either, so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.
I just want to touch on a few more things before I close this report. One, I'm sorry I'm dumping all this on you, Professor, but... I'm used to having someone to talk through my problems with. You were always there to take care of us at Fairy Park, so I guess I got used to telling you everything, and it's how my reports come out. I can change it, but... it'd take some doing, I think, and I'm not sure everything would come across the same way. So I'll keep writing them like this. And also... Eri and Hana are acting kind of weird, I'm hearing. Hana's started putting herself first a bit more than is normal, I think, and Eri's gotten visibly clingy to Hana; Eri doesn't notice the change in Hana, and Hana doesn't seem to notice (or care about) the change in Eri. I'm worried, but... I'll continue to observe and report what I find.
Try not to work too hard, Professor; I know a lot of the active Desu units and pilots are here on the Chalice, and part of our normal duties is training the new pilots, but hopefully they're far enough along that you won't need to work them too hard. I hope we can make it back to visit soon; it's hard to believe it's been three whole months since I've been at the Park. Take care, Professor.
Sora Myoudouin
The pages are stacked in a neat pile on her desk, with an addressed envelope sitting next to the stack. A somewhat worn pen rests atop a clipboard next to them. Sora herself seems to be taking a nap, murmuring something you can't catch; there's a small smile on her lips, and she looks peaceful.]
===
Activity list:
- 5 in How Does That Make You Feel? with the PreDesu team and Tsukasa
- Shine 6 | Four Hearts ~ Realizations, and 11 in threads with Mobius One, Kamille, Hoshi, and Julia
- 4 in the unnamed Kamille post after Separation ~ Assimilation
- 6 in An Ace's... Nevermind with Mobius One
- 13 in Seventh Note | The Part Where She Kills Them with Hana and Seiren
- 11 in 22nd Bloom with Hana
- 7 in Eighth Note | A Date on a Calendar with Seiren
- 7 in First gift with Michelle
- 4 in Ninth Note | Birthdays with Seiren
! Mission: Colliding War Zones
- Shine 7 | With the Stars as Witness, and 42 tags with Hana, Julia, Michelle, Laura, Mobius One, Kamille, Gainer, and Seiren
- 5 in Discovery #23 with Werter
- 4 in the unnamed Char post after Colliding War Zones
- 7 in Where's Alexei? with Alexei
! Mission: DUNE Steps Into the Light
- Shine 8 | And Be of Good Cheer, and 10 with Kamille
- 3 in Tenth Note | DUNE with Seiren
- 4 in Signs of Snow with Ciel
- 3 in Seventeenth Light with Julia
- 2 in Because he's a Hero / Infinite Pride with Mad
- 6 in Third Briefing with Alexei
...with two missions and three posts, I'm not going to bother counting tags, Sora passes.
Professor Himesaki,
Um. I don't know how to even begin. I... I'm just going to start my report.
I'm sure you're aware, but I reported a number of morale issues on the team, many involving Hana, and being traceable to Seiren and myself. With the help of Tsukasa, we determined it was time to put those issues to rest. The resulting group therapy session mostly just brought something out into the open that we already knew: Hana needed a better grip on what she is - what we are. We're soldiers. That's a lesson I needed to learn myself, and while I'm not proud of it, one Seiren taught me handily. She's... still a little too coarse for my sensibilities, but I've seen enough by now that I can understand what she's teaching me. As much as I complain about her, as much as I hate what tends to happen to Hana when she's around... I appreciate that she's willing to help us.
Tsukasa gave us assignments to improve our teamwork, either with each other or with any given pilot; I took my copy back to my room while I reflected on things. Julia stopped by to see how the session went, which made me happy, considering I haven't talked to her much lately. After a few words with her about our team dysfunction, I went ahead to the kitchens for duty as assigned; I found a new pilot there, Mobius One (I assume it's a codename), who flies a fighter plane. She was looking to join the kitchen staff herself, if not for the same reason as I was; she seemed nice enough. Kamille was hanging around doing his own work, and eventually Hoshi Hikari found me, the person I'd been assigned to work under; I found out later she's a Kamen Rider, like Tsukasa and a few of the others. I hung around the kitchen for the rest of my assigned shift, though I didn't get a chance to talk to the other Desu pilots while I was down there. They kept me busy!
A few days passed, and there was a sortie, codenamed "Separation ~ Assimilation". Kamille had deployed; I was worried as I normally tend to be while he's out fighting for us, but shortly before he returned I just had this overwhelming feeling of dread. I don't know what caused it, I'm not sure I ever will, but it felt... bad. I rushed down to the hangar to greet him, and found a broken Zeta Gundam and Kamille in a dark mood. Apparently they'd had to leave someone behind to make their escape, and she'd sacrificed herself to make sure the thing they'd been fighting, a stronger version of the Festum, didn't pursue. From the tale he told of the monsters they'd fought, honestly, one sacrifice was a fair price for the safety of the Chalice, and the human race. (I also discovered that Luger had snuck over to the wrecked Zeta and left grafitti on it; I haven't yet showed him what I do to people that insult my important people through me.)
He'd mentioned someone else though, someone that "wasn't all there" after fighting those things. I looked around the hangar and eventually found Mobius One standing next to the wreck of her plane. The combination of what I understand to be attempted Festum assimilation and someone having given herself up to save the team had hit her hard. I tried to console her, to say anything that could help her move past it, but... it was hard, trying to reassure someone that everything would be fine when I'd only gone out for two sorties, and I'd lost something major in each of them. I don't think it worked, and after a little while I left her alone to grieve.
Shortly after that, Seiren contacted Hana and I to let us know that she'd reconstructed the course for her "special" training, which both of us had been sentenced to. We appeared for Seiren's unique brand of torture - you've seen that course, right? I heard a rumor she set it up for April Fool's Day one year as an attraction - and after a few questions to make sure we understood everything, we began. The intial obstacle course was finished surprisingly quickly; Hana and I together managed to clear it without too much difficulty. Similarly, we managed the physical stamina battery quickly, though it was close. The last stage, though... as usual, was combat against Seiren. I'll admit, most of that day is a blur; there's a big section I can only get pieces of, then I have a clear memory of saying something to Seiren as my head hit the floor, and then I came to several hours later in my own room, my entire body screaming.
I spent the next day and a half taking it easy and waiting for the pains to ease to a dull ache; I was feeling mostly better by the time Hana was done with her last day of training. I went to go visit her late that afternoon... and found a blue-haired mummy. There's no better way to describe it. She was wrapped up in bandages over most of her body... it didn't look good. She didn't have much to say, either; she was in too much pain. After a joke from her, I decided it might be a good idea to see about an ice bath to make everything stop aching for a few minutes, and left to go find someone with actual medical authority to approve the idea. A few minutes later I was back in Hana's room and carrying her carefully down the hall toward the bathing area. Along the way, we chatted about a few things; namely, that I was still worried I'd disgusted her or something when she found me with Kamille that one time. She had a similar worry about herself and Eri, and... we came to an understanding. So that's one less worry on my mind.
I returned to my room with wet, rolled-up sleeves, to find Seiren working on her reports. We discussed Hana's training - I still don't know how she survived having to repeat the obstacle course for four hours - and I eventually noticed a date circled on Seiren's calendar. I hadn't realized it was her birthday; I suspect she wouldn't have taken well to most of us trying to do anything for her, but nothing was stopping me from remembering it, at least.
We began preparations to return to space the next day; shortly before we departed, a new pilot came aboard, one Michelle Fournier, and a blue robot called Pandora. I'd found her looking over a large kit of tools, presumably to assure everything was there, and we talked about the virtues of working for a company that wants to ensure everything's in order before you leave, rather than us with our Desu units, where we're trained in maintenance but we don't bring much in the way of specialized parts for repair; and about her employer, and our impending trip to space. We were both excited about it, considering we both came from relatively tame places before this (home in my case; Fairy Park is anything but tame).
The next day after that was Seiren's birthday; apparently Laura had invited her to some sort of function between just the two of them, and I ran into her along the way. I... said something that came out weird, and I think I made Seiren mad. Once we came to an understand of what I actually meant, I left her alone before I made her mood worse.
It was around this time that the Chalice made preparations to meet with key officers of the Federation in the interest of shutting down the Titans once and for all at the Konpei Island facility in space. I was along as part of the escort party to bring one Blex Forer to the tribunal, and eventually we sent him on in a civilian mobile suit to attend; we were invited to watch over a video feed. As Blex began his speech, there was a loud explosion that ripped apart the podium he was standing at... and when the smoke cleared, a Percolatis - a huge bug-like being - was standing in his place. Apparently Blex had been dead this whole time, and the Titans didn't take kindly to the seeming double-cross, declaring us under arrest, and mobilizing mobile suits to fight us when we didn't submit. That kicked off the operation later codenamed "Colliding War Zones" as we deployed to defend ourselves; I launched in Desu Itsuki.
Things started relatively simply. Several top Titans officers were around to see us killed, and we fought back. The highlight was the huge black monstrosity Kamille later identified as the Psyco Gundam, which I attempted to assault with the Gold Forte Burst, the strongest offensive skill available to Desu Itsuki... which it ignored, and promptly punished my trying by damaging the hand holding the Itsuki Tambourine. I'm still not sure how that happened. Combat went on in this way for a little bit longer, until the rules were changed when one Admiral Delaz, formerly of Zeon, now a rogue element, appeared with several ships, out to fight both our own ships and those of the Federation. To that end, he had a trump card: Anavel Gato in his GP-02, thought dead, and still carrying at least one nuclear warhead, up here in space where N-Jammer technology didn't reach. As Delaz ordered the strike, every single Federation vessel took measures to shoot it down... and all failed, as the warhead struck Konpei Island, wiping out most of its personnel in one shot.
I admit, that was not one of my better moments. I just sat there watching. The flash haunted my dreams for weeks; it still does, sometimes. As it cleared, the Titans were as horrified as we were; the fight became an all-out brawl, with us in the middle. There wasn't a whole lot I could do with what I had on the Itsuki; I tried to stick to ranged solutions, but I nearly shot down an allied pilot in my trying to help, and I didn't manage to make any sizable contribution in the later half of the battle. Eventually there was no choice but for us to run, as Paptimus Scirocco appeared with an army of Mobile Dolls to clear everyone out, and our only remaining option was to retreat or die.
My return back to the Chalice was... hurt, angry, confused. I don't really remember most of it, though I do remember Gainer, one of the two professional gamers aboard the ship, trying to reach out to me and figure out what was wrong. Eventually I had to stop talking to him; I got too emotional and I could feel the Itsuki's control slipping away from me. Once I hit the hangar, I took off running back into the Chalice proper, a sobbing mess, and eventually I tripped, and just stayed there in a heap, crying my eyes out. Everyone was so supportive, though... it helped a lot. Hana tried to distract me with the arboretum, Julia reminded me that PreDesu units aren't really built to fight super robots, and I think I made Michelle worry when I mentioned I hadn't trained that long for flying Desu Itsuki, all things considered.
After I calmed down enough to move, I headed for a quiet place I could look out into space; I didn't want to hand around my own room or the arboretum, both Seiren's typical haunts, as I half-expected her to have something to say about my performance. She did not, as I found when she visited me; she was actually concerned after what she'd heard had happened, which made me happy. Mobius One tried to return the favor from after her disastrous fight against the Festum, and Laura reminded me that we were a little outmatched out there... thinking back now, there were a lot of mobile suits out there. And eventually Kamille found me, which I both wanted and dreaded; I felt like I'd let him down. He talked me out of that, though, and when I expressed anger at their so-called Spirit of Zeon, he explained the different between "Zeon" - Delaz's splinter faction - and Axis Zeon, the faction Lady Haman Karn operates, which I didn't know and made me feel somewhat better about being on a ship with Zeon officers. I just took it easy the rest of the evening; I don't remember where I eventually ended up sleeping.
In the following day or two, I had a few loose ends to tie up; one was Werter making a statement about the horrors Zeon had brought to bear against humankind. I talked to him about that for a little bit; it still hadn't hit me that Delaz being a splinter faction meant I just needed to find him, rather than deal with Zeon as a whole. That would make justice quite a bit easier. The other thing was seeing how Char had managed after the fight; he'd had to deal with vacuum exposure, so he'd been rushed to the infirmary as the battle was ending. He awoke the next day, but he'd been fairly disheartened. He mentioned something I hadn't thought of - Lady Karn herself was out there with us at the time the nuke went off. Zeon would be thrown into chaos had she been injured or killed in the blast, let alone in the battle afterward. That... scared me. For that matter, what if they'd shot at the Chalice? All of us... wiped out in an instant. That thought horrified me for some time after I left Char.
My mood improved over the the next few days; the biggest thing that happened was the return of Alexei, who had apparently been in the Wahrheit for the month since I'd seen him last. I'd learned enough from kitchen duty with Hoshi and the others that I could manage a passable meal without help, and so when Alexei expressed he was hungry from spending so long in there, I dragged him to the kitchen to catch him up on the events he'd missed, from around the time Kamille and I became an item to the events with Zeon, the Titans, and Delaz a few days prior. He'd listened to it all as he ate, and seemed to shrug it off as not-unexpected goings-on... though he mentioned he was happy for Kamille and I, which pleased me. I'm still surprised he doesn't hate either of us for... that time.
And then we deployed for a more emergency-based sortie; a group of anti-capital mobile suits were in front of the Chalice and set to ram us during a resupply at a colony, so it was up to us to destroy them, and I launched in Itsuki to protect the ship, in a sortie later designated "DUNE Steps Into the Light". They went down fairly quickly, so there wasn't much issue, even though there was something weird with one of our Gundams; I think the pilot switched out or something, but we only found out when a big crab mecha came from around the colony and grabbed it. In any case, we were able to start taking care of the ambush... and then something appeared. Something that terrified me. Bursting out of the colony came a huge humanoid unit that Eri identified as DUNE. Why he was here, I'll never know, but... the enemy of all PreDesu, sitting in front of us. Even if we were hopelessly outmatched, what choice did we have but to fight?
Hana and Eri, in the Endless units Blanc and Noir, were able to keep up with him, but... I kept getting thrown into the colony we were resupplying from; my back still hurts from all that. Eventually help appeared: a silver PreDesu unit, eventually identified as Desu Tsukikage. The pilot helped us deal with DUNE; but eventually we were being pushed back, and Eri decided enough was enough, and began to unseal the Endless units from the WEARE system that held their power back. The Dual Aurora Wave lit up the wastes of space, and the glory of Blanc and Noir was revealed once more; immediately thereafter, we all joined together for one big attack to try and take DUNE out once and for all. The power of the Extreme Luminario... is astounding to see first-hand. Everything else looked like we were firing popguns compared to its absurd destructive ability. And... we did it, somehow. That was enough to destroy DUNE. I still find it hard to believe, but... we won. The Tsukikage's pilot collapsed right afterward, though, so our celebrating was cut short as we returned to the Chalice.
Eri and Hana handled the transportation of Desu Tsukikage and its pilot, so when I made it back to the hangar, I was free to get out of the Itsuki and... feel happy with my work, for once. Nobody died, and I actually did something! It was such a great feeling...! I set some time aside to talk to POTPOURRI too; I'd been ignoring him lately, and I felt bad about it. While I made peace with my AI, Kamille returned; apparently he'd been out covering other parts of the ship, and without fanfare he got out of the Zeta Gundam, made a declaration of his awesomeness, and kissed me again. Not that I minded at all... but I think I think POTPOURRI was jealous, and as soon as Kamille was out of the way he attached himself to my face. I spent some time trying to pry him off, and Kamille and I talked for a little while, and I told him he was important to me, and he said I was important to him, and... I think we're closer now.
After I got away from Kamille I found Seiren, whom I'd been meaning to look for; we hadn't seen her during the mission, and I was worried. Apparently Desu Ellen had malfunctioned just as she'd tried to launch, and she didn't get it repaired in time. She'd mentioned something about "Infinity", but I didn't ask about it aside from trying to remember what the term meant. I think she said it was the Project's prophet? Something like that... I probably should remember that, but then again, I have nothing against just taking things as they come.
And speaking of new things coming out of the Project, Ciel arrived on the Chalice shortly after that sortie. She doesn't seem to have changed much; still cold to everyone, for sure. I met up with her the evening of her arrival, and I think I managed to make at least some kind of impression on her; I'm starting morning training with her so she can evaluate my skill. I'm not entirely certain what she thinks of me, but I'm going to put everything I have into it. She certainly doesn't think much of... well... Eri or Hana. She knows Seiren well enough, and we all know Katsumi by now. Ciel doesn't think much of me either, but I said enough to make her notice, I think.
After that was a brief visit to Seattle Colony, Julia's home for quite a while, that she'd been away from for a few years now. There was a big crowd waiting for her, which she seemed happy about... but she was thinking about the old days, too. When the Irgelion Empire was seeking to conquer the Earth Sphere. Let alone that now the two of us, former Irgelion citizens ourselves, were serving on a warship dedicated to saving the Earth Sphere. It's... jarring. But I think she enjoyed herself, so I'm happy for her.
That just brings me to the last day or two. A new pilot broadcast a challenge to us; one Maddox Caine. He... seemed fairly crass. Poor language, poor opinions on a lot of things. A day later, he came aboard, and I found myself unimpressed. Alongside the other things, he seems to have an odd dislike for women serving in a combat capacity, which annoyed me. I replied to his video message with what I realize now was a fairly stinging remark, mostly standing up for my gender, which seemed to terrify him, and he disconnected before I could get another word in edgewise.
And last off... Alexei. The League of Ruling Corporations sent us a briefing for a new mission, to destroy the Arms Fort Great Wall. It... looks like a train, but several times larger, much more massive, and with guns and missile turrets everywhere. As soon as the briefing came, Alexei got... weird. He went to load up the Wahrheit with enough ammunition to take down a space colony, with a manic feeling about him. I went to ask him about it... I didn't realize it before, but he's been a LYNX - a pilot for the League's Armored Core NEXTs - for at least ten years now. He served the lost corporation Rayleonard in the LYNX War back then, and scheming by the other corporations, particularly Global Armaments, brought that group down, leaving Alexei the last LYNX of Rayleonard. He bears that title proudly... and it's the reason he's worked for COLLARED this last decade: waiting for a chance at revenge. I'm worried something will happen, but... I trust him not to get in over his head. I'm more worried about the Closed Plan he was going on about, but he doesn't know anything about it either, so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.
I just want to touch on a few more things before I close this report. One, I'm sorry I'm dumping all this on you, Professor, but... I'm used to having someone to talk through my problems with. You were always there to take care of us at Fairy Park, so I guess I got used to telling you everything, and it's how my reports come out. I can change it, but... it'd take some doing, I think, and I'm not sure everything would come across the same way. So I'll keep writing them like this. And also... Eri and Hana are acting kind of weird, I'm hearing. Hana's started putting herself first a bit more than is normal, I think, and Eri's gotten visibly clingy to Hana; Eri doesn't notice the change in Hana, and Hana doesn't seem to notice (or care about) the change in Eri. I'm worried, but... I'll continue to observe and report what I find.
Try not to work too hard, Professor; I know a lot of the active Desu units and pilots are here on the Chalice, and part of our normal duties is training the new pilots, but hopefully they're far enough along that you won't need to work them too hard. I hope we can make it back to visit soon; it's hard to believe it's been three whole months since I've been at the Park. Take care, Professor.
Sora Myoudouin
The pages are stacked in a neat pile on her desk, with an addressed envelope sitting next to the stack. A somewhat worn pen rests atop a clipboard next to them. Sora herself seems to be taking a nap, murmuring something you can't catch; there's a small smile on her lips, and she looks peaceful.]
===
Activity list:
- 5 in How Does That Make You Feel? with the PreDesu team and Tsukasa
- Shine 6 | Four Hearts ~ Realizations, and 11 in threads with Mobius One, Kamille, Hoshi, and Julia
- 4 in the unnamed Kamille post after Separation ~ Assimilation
- 6 in An Ace's... Nevermind with Mobius One
- 13 in Seventh Note | The Part Where She Kills Them with Hana and Seiren
- 11 in 22nd Bloom with Hana
- 7 in Eighth Note | A Date on a Calendar with Seiren
- 7 in First gift with Michelle
- 4 in Ninth Note | Birthdays with Seiren
! Mission: Colliding War Zones
- Shine 7 | With the Stars as Witness, and 42 tags with Hana, Julia, Michelle, Laura, Mobius One, Kamille, Gainer, and Seiren
- 5 in Discovery #23 with Werter
- 4 in the unnamed Char post after Colliding War Zones
- 7 in Where's Alexei? with Alexei
! Mission: DUNE Steps Into the Light
- Shine 8 | And Be of Good Cheer, and 10 with Kamille
- 3 in Tenth Note | DUNE with Seiren
- 4 in Signs of Snow with Ciel
- 3 in Seventeenth Light with Julia
- 2 in Because he's a Hero / Infinite Pride with Mad
- 6 in Third Briefing with Alexei
...with two missions and three posts, I'm not going to bother counting tags, Sora passes.
