Phoenix

"You did a good job getting her to us as quickly as you did," Megumi offered what praise she could before Buck bolted. She doubted anyone would be feeling better about all of this until Christina was up and walking around, again. Even then, they still had some traitorous moles to deal with. On close examination, it looked like Christina may have been lungshot; she never would have woken up again if she'd been hit anywhere worse. Since she was the only patient to worry about right now, the doctor decided to focus on prepping her patient for the waiting SIEG tank. One of the advantages of not having to do any triage was that she could perform a more advanced surgery to completely erase those gunshot wounds instead of just closing them up. There was something quite sinister about all of this. Megumi couldn't help but frown as she mentally assembled a picture of what had happened to Christina. A gunshot wound to the back that would leave her in this condition? Another shot to the leg? If Avery had been in a position to kill Christina, why didn't she just do it? It wasn't a question of poor aim if she'd gotten the jump on this perpetual damsel in distress. Did she want her victim to suffer and die like this? The Avery they knew was definitely a ruse, and she was definitely gone, replaced by someone downright despicable. "This is going to be pretty uncomfortable, so brace yourself," Megumi warned, preparing to apply that fast acting hemostatic foam to the chest wound, first in the front, and then in the back. That was when the Riese made a hard landing in the water, though it felt more like they'd been parked over a large bomb that just went off. The doctor didn't know if they'd collided with something or been hit with a powerful attack, at first. She also couldn't focus on it, right now. First, the foam. Fortunately for Christina, the type Megumi was using would partially numb the wounds as well, providing some minor relief. After that, she would check the leg wound more closely and repeat the procedure. First she made sure there weren't any obvious fragments or the like inside the chest wound. "Captain, please get a handle on things up there ... alright, Bennet, help me get her onto her good side. Tambre, keep an eye on her vitals and let me know if she needs a transfusion." They weren't that slow, but the patient had already lost quite a lot of blood, so it might prove necessary. They were out of time. Firmia could feel it, and judging by Jessica's transmission, the Luna was going to have a good deal to do with it. When Hannah requested orders, Firmia quickly replied, "We're back on defense. Keep them from attacking the Riese and look for an opening to force them back." Their only chance of turning this around was to wait for the enemy to make a mistake. All of these attacks they were throwing out just weren't amounting to much ... As if that wasn't bad enough, Firmia's calm was completely eradicated by what happened next. "Hello, humans," Firmia heard the voice not from the comms but from much closer to home, "I'm going to give the lot of you one chance to surrender, and return my pet to me. Any resistance will be met with your swift, and unpleasant death. Do I make myself clear?" Fury. That was the emotion that began to well up in Firmia as the Sacarians made their demands. Between the sudden but inevitable betrayals aboard the Riese and this foreign feline forcing his way into her mind, she was at wit's end. She couldn't see beyond the next three minutes anymore, and her one thought was on the killing stroke. How to do it, how to finally skin one of these animals and string up their carcass for the rest of their kind to tremble at. How? Jessica spoke for the group and rejected the offer to surrender, naturally. "Prepare to die then, foolish humans." Fury ... Because the Avalon's T-Link was still active, the six drones that were operational were thoroughly confused, aiming their compact beam rifles toward the enemy group and then quickly lowering them, again, and again, and again. They received combined 'attack' and 'standby' commands continuously as Firmia furiously pondered their options with her full and murderous intent behind each and every thought. A couple of them even transformed to try and fly over to battle and then just as quickly changed back and landed. It was a confused mess of AIs all trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. All of the Avalon's active funnels were similarly affected, and being directly controlled by the Alkaev's intentions, they rattled violently in their docks on the outer hull of the ship. The situation in the hangar was even worse, with all of the standby funnels starting to shake themselves loose from their racks. A few of them flew through the hangar like projectiles and crashed into equipment and bulkheads, forcing Sasha and the mechanics to find cover. The shaking from the funnels docked near the bridge sent small tremors throughout the front of the ship. That, along with a very uncomfortable feeling in her own head caused Tonya to scan the bridge. At first, she thought the Sacarians were shaking the ship up as a warning, but she quickly realized that all the T-Linked equipment on board was reacting to Firmia, at least everything they had bothered to leave turned on. It probably wouldn't work, but Tonya tried to help Firmia calm down. "Captain, we need you coordinating the Riese's defense. Try to stay focused, alright?" If Firmia was suffering from the same headache she was, Tonya couldn't blame her for being in such a bad mood. Pretty much nothing was going right at the moment, and she had to pilot the ship like this on top of that? These space cats could go straight to hell. "Show me how ..." Firmia murmured to herself, her eyes wild and taking in everything around her, "... how to break them." "Breaking them is fine but let's try to survive too, alright?" Tonya forced a smile. "Captain, what's going on up there?" That was Sasha's voice on the ship's main channel, "The funnels were going crazy. I had to use an override command to shut them all down." "Don't worry about it, Sasha," Tonya answered him, "We're sorting things out on our end. Shutting them off was the right call so you should be fine, now." "Still a pretty big mess," Sasha noted bitterly, "They were loose when I sent the command so now we've got a couple dozen of them just rolling around the hangar." "I'll keep the maneuvers gentle," Tonya promised, and closed the channel. "The Riese just touched down, Captain. That's one way to put it ..." "Have to focus ..." Brant couldn't decide what was worse, having the Sacarians showing up, seeing the Artemis get taken off the front lines yet again, or watching helplessly as the Riese crash landed in the ocean just seconds later. There were plenty of other terrible things happening right now, of course. The probability that Christina had been murdered by Avery was just too high for any kind of optimism, and Brant could feel the shifts in both Firmia's and Chris' auras. Their respective berserk buttons had been pressed and pressed hard. There was also some panic inside the Avalon that Brant thought might be due to hearing the Sacarians' demands, but it felt even more urgent than that. Even the Avalon's drones were acting strange, like they couldn't make up their minds on whether or not to join the battle. Was Firmia losing control of the T-Link on top of everything else going on? "I guess our target's still the Ceres, but we can't let the reinforcements surround us," Brant said, mostly to himself as the Regalia's funnels sprang to life. Toolkit, not a coffin. Time to see if they could take out enough enemies to force a retreat. While it would be better from a strategic perspective to wipe them out here, Brant didn't feel they were in a position to commit to that kind of attrition battle. If they lost the Riese, the ANF wouldn't be able to press forward to land the finishing blow on Apotheosis. The Avalon couldn't carry all of the mobile suits that would be left behind even if they did survive the battle ... and if they lost the Avalon ... well, someone had to keep their rage at bay, so best not to dwell on that. For now, the Avalon wasn't likely to take much concentrated fire, so they had a chance to turn this situation around if they protected the Riese.

Up next was Ezekiel Fuller. Neither of the monikers Sable nor Sirius rung any bells for Hitomi on their own, but the 'Sable Order' sounded vaguely familiar. When it came to the professional teams, she actually cared enough to pay attention to any names or feats that stood out, and she preferred watching gaming broadcasts to other shows. Still, that exposed her to hundreds of different teams and few of them stood out without ridiculous gimmicks. "I'm Hitomi Moto. BB works just fine though--" minus any of Motherloader's cheeky tweaks--"Co-founder of Team Odyssey." She had to admit that when Ezekiel mentioned his experience as a team lead, it made her slightly nervous again; she thought back to the message Motherloader had sent Odyssey and how 'obnoxious team leady' it read. Although she was a co-founder of the team, Hitomi didn't consider herself much of a leader in practice. Linus had the luxury of actually calling shots since he could fight at any range, but Hitomi was always focused on getting enemy attention. She decided then and there to give their platinum ranked hopeful the benefit of the doubt, especially since he didn't stop at the team lead part. He'd also mentioned team management, which was potentially obnoxious but different from an actual command position, and PR, which might come in handy ... Hitomi doubted her father could keep getting away with shamelessly promoting his daughter's team. And then there were the team assets. Hitomi could only smile apologetically at first. "Our first season was a little rough and our play time was low, so we only placed gold, but things will be infinitely better this year." The fact that higher ranked players were even lining up in this cafe was enough assurance for her, but even without a lot of interested players, Hitomi planned to improve to the point where Team Odyssey could qualify for and win the championship this year. A tall order, but if the team was willing to shoot that high, then anyone standing in the way was in trouble. "What kind of assets do you have?"

There was the unlucky patient Megumi had been waiting for. Christina was going to wind up in a SIEG tank however this first phase turned out, but the doctor needed to stabilize her, first. Remove the projectiles too, if they hadn't passed clean through. Thankfully, they were ready to go, the doctor even having gotten out of her coat and donning a mask and gloves for these 'damage control' surgeries she was about to perform. "Over here," Megumi indicated the closest bed available and tried to get a good look at the wounds while they brought her over. What the doctor noticed first was that Christina was at least partially awake, still. This should be 'fun' ... "We have to stop running into each other like this," Megumi groaned at Christina. "I need you two," she eyed Makoto and Caroline, "to tell me everything you can. How much blood has she lost, has she been conscious this whole time, how's her breathing, etcetera." "Dammit, destroy the Ceres! Hurry!" Firmia couldn't stand the fact that the Riese's oldest machine was enduring all of this. Apparently they had been upgrading their escape vehicle in secret. Firmia couldn't help but imagine how much more annoying it would be if something like an assault tank equipped with oversized floaties was pulling the same stunt. The Alkaev did feel completely vindicated now, however. The way she'd conducted herself aboard the Riese had been harsh at times, but hindsight was her friend, and she was definitely going to take advantage of this disastrous learning experience. Despite being right not to trust Avery, FIrmia couldn't shake the feeling that they were running out of time to take down the traitor(s), and that had her on the edge of her seat, right now. "Should we try the main guns?" Tonya asked, shrugging from the helm. Oh so tempting, but ... "The mobile suits have to bring the Ceres down," Firmia sighed, "There's too much risk of friendly fire if we start shooting from over here ... and no, I'm not having everyone get clear for us--" not that they would-- "That's just the kind of opening the Ceres needs to break away. We just have to hope they can handle this ..." "I'll keep us at this range until the Riese lands then." Once the Regalia was off the catapult and able to take in the surrounding battlefield, it became clear that at least one of the moles was already escaping. "Whoa ..." From a single glance it seemed like whatever damage done to the Riese crew had been severe. "Christina ..." Between the fact that the Artemis was going completely berserk and Brant not being able to sense Seung-Min's copilot, it was obvious that Christina was incapacitated ... or worse. Something else that was bothering him was the fact that the Ceres was the machine Avery had chosen to use to escape from the ANF in. Had Astin really not noticed what was going on? Maybe, but it felt more likely to Brant that Astin was the other mole. Everything they had ever done and said in front of him suddenly had to be reframed, and it was really disappointing to think about. "See if you can get a hold of your sisters, but be ready with the funnels. We're going to help them out," Brant said, arming the Regalia's hyper beam rifle. The Ceres was shrugging off way more than usual, so Brant doubted they would accomplish much, but until the situation changed, their primary objective was the capture or destruction of the Ceres. Well, according to Firmia, it was strictly a destruction target, but the situation could still change at the drop of a hat.

Rachel agreed to the doctor's plan and then got to it. That was around the time Abigail barged into the infirmary ready to blow away the Riese's former head mechanic ... or anyone else that made a wrong move. She'd calmed down and rightly assessed the situation by the time Megumi stood up to say anything. The doctor had been about to suggest Abigail stick around momentarily, but Olivia reminded them both that the pilots were supposed to be getting ready to launch. Megumi had forgotten about that in the sudden rush to save Christina. The Artemis probably wasn't going anywhere for the moment ... "I know the infirmary seems like an easy target, but as long as I get a slight warning, we can hold the fort here," Megumi assured Abigail, "I'm more worried about the hanger and the mobile suits, actually. If you're launching with the others please be careful." The head mechanic on the Riese was one of the traitors after all, which meant ... well, it meant all sorts of bogus was potentially coming down the pike. A mole was one thing, but the woman coordinating all of the mechanics and overseeing a project or two of her own? What a kick in the shins. Speaking of kicks, a small warning beeped from the doctor's console. All she could see at first when she glanced back at it was that the Artemis was sending pilot data to the infirmary. Was Seung-Min preparing to take off? Without her copilot? Didn't she need Christina for something involving the T-Link? Moreover, if there was one suit Megumi expected to go up in flames the moment someone put the keys in the ignition so to speak, it was the Artemis ... or maybe it was being stolen? Seriously what in the hell was going on right now? Three minutes was certainly better than two. Firmia almost thought she could actually think of a way out of this Luna and moles mess in that time frame. Unfortunately, she had some hefty jobs of her own, right now. Keep the Avalon from being shot down. Protect the Riese. Keep her own crew under control. Coordinate the Riese pilots. She had no idea how that last one was going to go, but the first three were paramount. As much as Firmia wanted to inquire about the pilots and how to get them to listen to an irritable seventeen year old, she just couldn't bring herself to do so. If Jessica could hunker down and focus on keeping things running on her end, Firmia could do the same on hers. "Alright. We'll take care of things out here." Galatea was lodging her usual complaints, but Firmia was fairly used to them by now. "I believe in you, Galatea. If you're feeling overworked though, have Jessica and Stephanie link up in the processor suite and take some of the load off. That's one of the benefits of us not having to hunt down any moles on our own ship." Firmia hoped to keep it that way. Coincidentally, they did have an Apotheosis lieutenant on board, though he was secure in the brig--and bored as all get out, Firmia imagined. The ANF had never asked her to hand Carlos over, and Firmia wasn't offering, so there he stayed. Just as well, being honest with herself, if the Alkaev was going to learn how to truly forgive people without just killing them off, Carlos wasn't a bad place to start. She pitied the man for the situation he'd wound up in despite him being responsible for many of the names on the memorial wall, and that definitely helped address some of the anger. It was an odd purpose for keeping a prisoner like him around, but it wasn't a bad one. Firmia did not want to turn into a murderous psychopath like some of her ancestors. Hannah wasted no time in moving over to the launch lift opposite the one the Regalia was taking, and heading out. It looked like the Mantle would be the last one out today. It was a shame they couldn't really chat about Hannah's experience with the Reign; between Chris' concerns and the intel Firmia and Galatea were passing on, the situation seemed pretty bad. The Regalia's T-Link wasn't giving him a clear enough picture from here. He knew he should be cautious, and maybe a tad worried right now, but he really didn't know to what degree. The two ships were so far removed from one another that nothing really felt real until he was physically present there. Chris couldn't tell what was going on either, but the mere fact that she wasn't gung ho like usual made Brant wonder if his future sisters-in-law were in danger. "The Regalia's our toolkit, not our coffin. We'll be alright. Let's just make sure the Riese and the people on it are, too." By then they were facing the end of the catapult and the door had opened for them. Rather than just hearing about it, they were about to get an eyeful of the Riese's situation from the outside.

Having received Rachel's message just after Jessica's, Megumi was definitely dubious about heading down. There were more than enough elevators, but that was actually the problem. If she headed down and didn't catch the group moving Christina up to the infirmary, she would have wasted the trip and not even arrive back at the infirmary until after they did. It might have been worth the risk if Christina wasn't the only one that had been shot, but that wasn't information she could confirm just yet, so she turned and headed back into the infirmary. "Rachel, this is Doctor Amparo," Megumi spoke into the comm on her desk once she arrived, "We still need you down there; do a full sweep of the area after they head up. There might be other casualties we don't know about, so please be thorough." An android on each deck meant they might still be able to catch Avery, but Megumi couldn't be sure given how things were playing out so far. If the moles had an escape plan, they were running out of time to head them off ... "They're bringing Christina to us and I don't want to run around in circles," Megumi informed Olivia and Valerie, "so we'll focus on setting up here." Megumi considered having either Olivia or Valerie get on the comms and try to use the androids to track down and deliver anymore casualties to the infirmary, but decided to spare both the potential frustration that came with playing dispatch. So Jessica's only idea on such short notice was to sacrifice the shields for buoyancy ... essentially, and even that would only buy the engineers enough time to diagnose the problem. Since it was internal sabotage, Firmia doubted her drones could assist with the repairs. She'd also need hundreds to even begin holding the ship up on the surface and they currently only had six that were fully operational. The Avalon could operate underwater and try to give the Riese enough of a push for Jessica to safely divert more power, but not only would the Avalon's main guns be severely weakened and heavily obscured down there, the Riese would only have real protection from the mobile suits back on the surface, which Firmia doubted would be enough all in all. Ultimately they'd likely lose both ships that way, with the Riese's sudden plunge damaging the Avalon and dragging it down to crush depth before Tonya could free them. So the drones and the Avalon as direct assistance just weren't viable. Firmia sighed. With no good alternatives coming to mind, they were going with Jessica's plan. "Galatea, you're getting all of this, right? Keep the MS teams and the hangar informed of all of this. Any medium's fine." She went to the ship's open channel just long enough to give the crew the go ahead. "All MS teams, the situation is now critical. Launch immediately, set up a defensive perimeter, and wait for further orders." Returning to her direct line with Jessica, she said, "So, two minutes until everything starts falling apart. I'll figure something out by then ... but ... this isn't something you can make up for. We're in this situation because of the 'old' Captain Gefalscht, so blame her for all of this. The new Captain Gefalscht just needs to worry about fixing this mess and making sure it doesn't happen again. By the way, Jessica ... don't let the moles escape. The most I could do is send our drones after them, but they aren't combat ready." The Alkaev wanted to address the Riese pilots too, given what Jessica had told her, but decided to wait until at least a few of them were in the field. The Regalia team had barely had time to suit up before they were ordered to launch. It was kind of sad that their peace streak was finally over. It seemed like they were back to being ambushed by Apotheosis. Another thing that might take some getting used to was seeing the Reign outfitted for combat, and knowing that Hannah and Galatea were at the controls. Brant had some ideas when the news reached him, but actually seeing how AIs could handle that machine would be something else completely. He just hoped they didn't lean too heavily on their experience with the Mantle. Likewise, Brant hoped Bonner and Lynx would handle the machine well. It was the slowest of the AMS units, so it was also the most user friendly, but if they got pinned down by enemy fire, that would work against them. Lynx was also stuck without a T-Link for a couple more days and could only do regular ... copilot stuff. A shame, really. Brant got the Regalia moving from its dock the very second the hatch closed, not wanting to hold up the Reign a moment longer than necessary. Since all the AMS units were docked in their usual places, Hannah and Galatea would be the last ones out more or less every time there was a full sortie. Not ideal but the Reign had been acting as a salvage unit until recently, and there was no reason to change positions with the Mantle simply due to launch order. They would just have to be quick or let the Reign squeeze through to the launch lift ahead of them depending on the situation. "Merlin to the bridge, we're heading out now. Don't wait too long for that update, okay? Not sure what we're dealing with today ..." "The Riese is in the middle of an emergency landing due to sabotage," Firmia muttered back to the Regalia and the other Avalon MS, "the Luna is probably coming too, so be ready."

So it was M Day. The M stood for Mole, obviously. No one else would be in a position to shoot Christina. Why was she always the one to wind up ...? Not important right this moment, Megumi decided, calling over to her minions as she checked over her pistol. "Christina is down; gunshot. Get everything here ready, including a SIEG tank, just in case. Buck, if you can't move her easily then stay put for now and put pressure on her wounds. I'll be there soon." They really ought to use one of the androids for this, even though it'd be a bit of a rough ride. It'd be a fast ride and that was the whole idea. There was one other thing. If Buck and Christina stayed put then they were less likely to run into their attacker again. Megumi always carried a firearm, but since she was heading that way, she wanted to be prepared in case she ran into any hostiles. Hopefully she'd find the android Jessica had assigned to the area and be able to use her to haul Christina back to the infirmary. Firmia appreciated being updated. She did not appreciate being put on hold. Not one to waste time, less occupied of the captains took a moment to set a few things in motion on her own vessel. "All MS teams prepare for immediate launch. I repeat, ALL MS teams prepare for immediate launch." She wished she was joking, but chances were that today, for the first time since Great Lake Base, the Regalia, Mantle, and Reign would all be fighting together. Without even checking her feed, Firmia also sent a mental command to the drones back in the hangar, and they began racing toward the launch lifts. All they had to do was standby in case Firmia needed them to race out into the field and retrieve something, but they had to get into position ahead of the mobile suits, otherwise they would muddy up the launches and slow everything down. When Jessica came back on the line, she had some actual news ... most of it bad. They were out of time to identify and detain the other moles, and apparently one of them had the Riese coming down out here over the water? Definitely Avery, then. Firmia's other suspect was Thorvald, due to how vulnerable his family was, and how easily any potential Apotheosis operatives in the ANF command structure could reach them. If not him then probably one of the outcast types, but that intel was on the way, so Firmia didn't have to figure any of that out on her own, now. What interested the Avalon's captain more was the Riese's lack of shielding. Had the ship been thoroughly sabotaged or was Jessica doing something complicated involving the shields? Firmia had the beginnings of an idea for helping the Riese expedite its repairs, but it was almost too much for her in the moment, hearing Jessica's sudden plea to protect the Riese. It was like something out of a dream, almost surreal, though not a situation the Alkaev really longed for. Yes, she did want Jessica's leniency to finally get her into trouble ... but this ... something about the real thing just felt off to Firmia. Just as well that all she could feel in herself right now was urgency and irritation. That meant she could do her part without any inner conflict. "Alright, calm down and focus on the Riese. We'll keep the MS teams organized and protect the ship. I need all the information you can forward, though." If Jessica was putting her on hold, then she probably wasn't one with the Riese just yet and could probably only handle so much brain work. Having some other minds focused on this could only improve and increase their options in response to this sudden but inevitable betrayal.

The Kids Are Alright (Part 2/2 3) Bigger Better Bonds A call? From someone other than Cheryl? It was Buck from the look of things. Megumi's first and only guess was a medical emergency in the hangar area. There were a lot of ways someone's day could get ruined down there due to carelessness on someone's part. She hoped it was something else, but ... "Doctor Amparo here. Is someone hurt, Buck?" Firmia normally wouldn't be wearing her SKIN suit on the bridge outside of a combat situation, but when the call from the Riese came, she was in the middle of some testing with the mechanics and some of the activated drones. She was essentially testing commands sent through the T-Link to the drones. Rather than controlling them directly like funnels, she would send orders of varying complexity and let the drones figure out the optimal way to handle any given task. Firmia tried not to laugh whenever one of the drones bumped into something or lost its balance. Rather than a complete program, Brant had opted for something similar to a learning program for these AIs. They would continue to make silly errors starting out, but something about it was endearing. More importantly, they had a shared database here on the ship. No two drones would make the same error, and no unique error would ever be made twice. There were six completed drones, and so there were six avenues of learning for the collective. Galatea was also able to upload anything specific they would need to avoid any 'fatal' errors in judgment. All in all, the program was coming along swiftly, and Firmia at least felt comfortable sending them out as a salvage team. The young captain let her tablet lie face up in her lap as she activated the comm at her seat. "Thank you, Flores." She connected and hoped it was nothing serious, yet. Firmia rather enjoyed running these T-Link tests, and would like to get back to it as soon if she could. "Captain Alkaev here ..." Firmia mentally crossed her fingers, but she doubted the situation was still normal. It almost couldn't be if the bridge was being contacted directly ...

Was wearing them fine? Brant didn't mind, but would Abigail be fine with her wearing those? Or did it not even matter if that's what she wanted to do? Probably better not to worry about it. "Thanks for accepting them," Brant said, offering a classic thumbs up.

A little less crippling responsibility and hindering from Apotheosis ... Yeah, Apotheosis' involvement really took a lot out of Jessica 1.0, but she was an angel compared to 2.0. Brant wouldn't complain about the latest iteration if things were going to remain manageable like this. 3.0 might actually be their best chance of helping Firmia through her emotional rut. At the very least she had a decent sense of humor. If she and Firmia could ever just get to talking that might help a great deal. "Hahah. Anything in your power, huh? This should be a piece of cake, then." Brant offered her the box, "Just take this. It's yours." While the contents of the box may have been made with Jessica in mind, they had been completely altered with Chris in mind. After all, Brant wasn't giving out any other rings ... not engagement rings, anyway. Earrings were the best he could come up with for an alternative. Not ideal, but about the same amount of materials were involved. "Doesn't really matter what you do with them. Put them in a drawer somewhere, throw them away, give them to Abby and watch her throw them away, frame them. As long as you take them. Parting with those and everything wrapped up in them is just something I need to do, now."

"No," Brant shook his head, "What I'm asking you to do wouldn't start right this minute, definitely not before I've had a chance to talk with her. I just know she's going to try to chase you off if the insults aren't enough, and if you give up then this could wind up being worse than pointless. Either way, in person is always better. Just ... let me lay some groundwork, first. You two may agree that it's okay for her to hate you, but I don't." Had Jessica really changed that much? She was obviously a little braver and more focused, now. But compared to the first time? That change had nearly been the end of him, so perhaps there was a little bias there, a hope that she wouldn't change so quickly that it wound up biting him, somehow. It was admittedly useless to feel that way now, though. As far as Brant was concerned, his relationship with Jessica couldn't possibly get any better or any worse than this. They were either on speaking terms or they weren't, and total separation could only free them both up for the people closer to them. At least the distance wasn't inherently negative. Maybe. "I actually preferred stuttering Jess if I'm being perfectly honest. She was on her way ... just needed a little more time. A little less crippling responsibility. No offense," Brant grinned an apology. "Speaking of her," Brant paused to venture into the jacket he'd been carrying with him, and managed to fish out a relatively flat, elongated box, "I actually need a favor from you, too."

"It's funny," Hitomi grinned at Monika, "we never had a dedicated melee person-" stealthy or otherwise, "so this could be really effective." As Odyssey's diversion expert and all around nuisance, BB considered high damage units her patrons. Few players even had the presence of mind to hunt for cloaked units when they were already under fire from a visible target. Those that did were easy pickings, even for BB's footloose tank build. "If you're interested, you should definitely come with us to the arcade, Keizerin. We can just brute force our way out of gold this time if Linus doesn't have to do all the oneshotting~" Motherloader, thinking he'd been the first 'in line' due to his earlier message, and thinking he was practically already on the team due to ... something, scowled only half seriously at Linus when he got called out, again. Feeling a little responsible for not being able to shake the guy off, Hitomi decided to try something. "Motherloader, I need a favor from you, actually ... and it's a big one so you can't say no." "A big one?" "Yes! Find the best arcade nearby and get things ready for us. You don't have to reserve a bunch of spots but try and get enough spots for a full team. There isn't anything you could do right now that's bigger or more important than that." Well, it sounded true, at least. Hitomi really couldn't think of anything better for the guy to do, and at least this way he wouldn't be stepping on their toes every five seconds, and could still be useful. "Huh ... yeah, that's a good idea," Motherloader agreed. "Think I'll warm up too, while I wait for you guys to catch up. Alright, leave everything to me." "Thank you~" Once Motherloader had gotten up and left, Hitomi sighed. "... sorry again, Linus. I had no idea he'd track me down in the crowd. But yeah, we'll handle things like you said. I'll start off things off and you feel them out some more. Then later we'll have some fun at the arcade." Now then, back to business. "Alright Kei, you should find the clips you like the most and show them to Linus really quick. I stopped paying attention to solo stuff a few centuries ago, but he might recognize something or even just get some good formation ideas." As simple as cloak and dagger was, Battlenet knew how to come up with team objectives that made kill mongers uneasy, so it couldn't hurt to try and plan ahead a little.

"No, it's not fine," Brant scowled briefly. Being referred to indirectly wasn't pleasant, nor did it fully encompass the Firmia issue, but only the latter was worth focusing on. "Firmia's struggling with being a captain, too. She even made the opposite choice you did, Jess. She's-- ... well ... we're all taking on a huge responsibility after the war ends. The problem is the stronger our group gets, the easier it is for Firmia to rely on things Dima taught her, and he's a murderer." Brant's concerns were too much to go over in their entirety, so he tried to limit himself to the foreseeable future as best he could. "Look ... I'll pass along that message for you this time, Jess, but ... don't just sit back and hope things magically work themselves out on our end. They won't. She needs to see the difference between the Jessica in her head and the real one she's working with. Not just one time, either. She needs to keep seeing it, again and again. "I don't know if she can forgive you; I'm not sure if Alkaevs even come with that feature. But I do know that she can't do it from a distance. She hates the 'Captain Jessica Gefalscht' in her head, but that's the one she's always stuck dealing with. That's why I'm asking you to leave your comfort zone for now and help her. She wants to make a better world, but chances are the murderer that raised her wants the same thing. It is not okay for her to have unresolved issues influencing all of her decisions." Eyeing Jessica somberly, Brant thought back to the very end of their relationship, that final moment when she conquered her stutter and shouted down Rosa. Brant glanced down the hall toward the meeting room doorway briefly as he replayed what he heard a few times. He wished it had been the old man on the screen instead of her, especially considering that her threat ended long ago. What had always struck him about the situation was Jessica's inclusion of Firmia in her outburst, which felt just as odd to him in hindsight as it had in the moment. At the time, and for some time afterward, it helped assure Brant that he and his friend were in good hands, that Jessica would watch over them like a hawk as they made new lives for themselves outside of Russia. To this day, nothing could have been further from the truth. Hannah wound up fulfilling the role Jessica established as she matured, while Jessica herself moved further and further away. The only things she seemed to know about them or their lives were the details tied to Brant's explanations. Some curiosity tempted him to not mention his daughters and nephew, just to see how long that kind of information would naturally elude her. Come to think of it, Firmia remembered that day in the meeting room, too. It was never a minor event for her when she brought it up, either. That day had been the start of her brief stay aboard the Riese, where she'd picked up every grievance she had with Jessica and with the ANF. Brant made a mental note to ask her more about it when he went to see her. "I know you're busy, but please don't sit this one out, too."

Jessica seemed to doubt she could get much done in terms of change from where she was, and Brant had a feeling she was right, but just the same, her leaving wouldn't stop the ANF from becoming the potential danger Firmia was trying to prepare for. It still probably wasn't the right time to discuss other options, though ... Brant could only force a smile at Jessica's jab, and it looked forced. This sort of thing probably wasn't ever going to be a comfortable subject for him, and Brant couldn't think of any way to comment on it that wouldn't point back to Jessica and potentially drag the whole mood down. He supposed he could just be terrifically concise ... "An Alkaev pilot dies, or he wins." The Tonya challenge was easier to deal with on the whole, both as a talking point, and in actual practice. Unfortunately that didn't last long, and then it was back into murky territory. Now Jessica wanted to pass along an innocent greeting to Firmia. Considering that Brant was planning on talking to her once he got back to the ship, and the reasons why, he could see that going over a bit poorly. She wouldn't make a scene out of it, but if her treatment of Rosa was any indication, Firmia was through trying to coexist with some people. "Once I'm finished here I did need to have a talk with her. She'll be annoyed with you trying to be nice," Brant admitted with a nod, "but it'll definitely be a good segue into what I wanted to talk with her about, so there's that. I don't think there's much time left for me to fix this, so I'm dealing with it before the fighting starts up, again."

Brant nodded rather seriously at Jessica's question; Chris and Hannah were family, pure and simple, so they had to come with. Jessica leaving the ANF was a little surprising. Firmia would be happy to see the android massively depowered compared to how she was now, but in reality it wasn't even a good thing for her, considering her plans. She needed every ally inside the organization that she could get, and even if Jessica couldn't be her friend, this entire war proved that she could at least be an ally. "It's kind of a shame you're leaving, to be honest. That's almost as bad as Vance or Alphonse retiring if you ask me, but ... I understand." Now probably wasn't the right time to bring up some of the other potential options they had. To Brant's surprise, Jessica took note of the bandages he was wearing, and probably the cuts beneath some of them. It was just too bad the short version of what happened was too short and the long version was too long. Brant wound up laughing on the spot, reaching up to rub his forehead with his free, and thoroughly bandaged hand. "I honestly can't think of a way to keep this brief and still have it make sense so I'll just stick to the plot points ..." Brant carefully crossed his arms, being careful not to squeeze his jacket too tightly, and stared down at Jessica's feet as the whole fiasco replayed itself at mach speed. "Alright," he sighed in bitter amusement as he made eye contact again, "so Tonya's been holding onto my engagement ring for safekeeping until I was ready to use it. She doesn't like the current situation, though ... So ... instead of just giving me the ring back now that I need it, she's wearing it ... and trying to take advantage of one of my depression offers. If I can't get it off of her by the end of the war she wants me to marry her instead of Chris. I'm not going to do that even if we miss our deadline ... but it's important for us to win the argument, so we're just jumping her every chance we get, now. And that's why it's been 0 days since my last visit to the infirmary."

It was a long wait in the hall, but the reason why became obvious when Jessica stepped out of the central elevator. Her greeting wasn't reserved or outwardly unusual, which Brant felt was both good and bad. He'd almost been looking forward to taking a look at the Riese's bridge from the inside before parting this last time, but it was probably for the best that it remained a little mystery, for the sake of a more private chat. Brant still didn't plan on saying very much compared to usual, though. His return wave to Jessica was even carefully measured, and not just because of how much his wrist and joints hurt, either. "Heh, with our luck we've got five ambushes between us and Apotheosis' main base going the short way and ten going the long way," Brant joked, though in doing so, he began to wonder how Jessica and company were planning on dealing with the remaining two moles. They were potentially worse than an ambush. Maybe they'd already been caught during this breather week? With most communication between the ships being between the mechanics, whatever was happening on the Riese wasn't reaching his ears. It wasn't why he came but Brant considered asking while he was here. "Anyway, I'm mainly paying a visit before we get underway," Brant explained, "Once the ANF officially calls the war, Firmia's going to want to break off from this impromptu fleet for good. I figured I should do something like this while we're in high spirits and ... not expecting anything."

Heading over to the Heion Riese on foot hadn't been a bad idea in the end. It'd given Brant a little more time to gather his thoughts. Things were picking up, so he knew that this wasn't going to play out the way he'd been planning it in his head. He certainly didn't plan on going to see Jessica with a bandaged up hand, plus accessories, but this morning's 'Attack on Tonya' had gotten a little out of hand. Having run into Megumi while the doctor was on her way to the infirmary just out of the elevator, Brant touched on that briefly when she asked about the injuries. That probably wasn't painting a good picture of life aboard the Avalon, but ... Alkaev ship, Alkaev pilots, Alkaev shenanigans. For once though, Brant was on the receiving end of this thing called pure misery. As tempted as he was to leave well enough alone, he had to ask her about it as they reached the infirmary entrance. Even the lesson he'd picked up about time and how immensely valuable it was wouldn't stop him from at least making an attempt. "I don't mean to pry, but TK senses or no I can tell you're depressed. Is it family?" Megumi nodded once, staring at the infirmary door. She looked like she wanted to straighten up more before heading inside to look normal, but Brant knew that just wasn't happening. "My 'mother,' the late Doctor Michelle Amparo," Megumi said after a moment's thought. Brant winced hard. Had she been killed while they were gearing up to attack Apotheosis' base? He also detected some anger, both in her aura and her tone. "That's ... a lot more than just sadness now, Doctor." "Megumi is fine ... and yes. I hated her." Megumi took a spot on the wall beside the infirmary door and stared at the ground. "At the end of the day, the only reason my sisters exist is to perfect the growth acceleration procedure that would allow Michelle to get a timely replacement body. And the only reason I exist was to be that replacement body." Brant froze, not sure exactly what Megumi was telling him. He only knew that it was probably the most illegal thing this side of murder. A replacement body? Was she referring to a brain transplant, then? Brant tried not to speculate too much, figuring he'd be lost for hours without more details. "Why would-" Megumi looked up and locked eyes with him, and despite the serious look on her face, there was some newfound relief radiating off of her. "Immortality. It always comes down to immortality. If not your body, then your mind. If not your mind, then your will. If not your will, then your legacy. Something, anything that was uniquely a part of you. That's what she wanted. All I wanted was to show her the truth ..." "The truth?" Megumi nodded somberly. "The truth that my sisters and I aren't just compatible bodies. We're not just resources to be used and thrown away. We could have accomplished everything she did in life if we'd been given the chance. We could have accomplished more working together. We could have realized that stupid dream of hers while she was still alive if she hadn't cloned us for the sole purpose of buying herself more time. There were just too many secrets to hide, too much trauma to deal with ... too many distractions that tugged at us while we tried to figure out who we were ..." Clones, Brant realized. Megumi was a clone, just like Chris and Nina? "My whole life has been leading up to this failure," Megumi said, sending her fist back into the wall, "all because I had to prove it to her. All so I could shove the solution in her face and tell her off once and for all for not believing in us. I just ... couldn't let that woman leave this world thinking she was right to use us like she did. Now she's dead, and I'm no closer to completing her research, thanks to this damn war." Brant decided then and there that even though Michelle wasn't someone he'd want to try and prove anything to, that obviously didn't apply to Megumi; no point in even bringing it up. He also couldn't help but think about his own daughters, and the reasons they were ultimately brought into this world. They were potential heirs of Dima's, which probably wasn't much different from what Michelle wanted, given how prone to manipulation and conditioning the old man was. Megumi and sisters certainly could have used a father figure, too. "I wasn't making any progress before," Megumi continued, "and now I doubt I ever will. Project Phoenix is officially a failure." "Is that what she called this body snatcher plot?" Brant winced. Megumi nodded again. "But I borrowed it for my own use ... so I could say it was a success in the end. When I showed her the very thing she's been after all these years, she'd know we're not science projects. We're not replacement bodies. We're not tools. We're her daughters. We were the future she should have been striving for." Megumi forced a smile. "I should have just held family game nights and won her over that way, huh?" "Yeah," Brant chuckled, placing a hand on the doctor's shoulder. "Look, Megumi ... this isn't a participation trophy; just the fact that you stepped up should have moved any reasonable parent, and just because Michelle didn't live to see the end result doesn't mean you're doing all of this for nothing. What if you handed her that dream of hers and she still just thought of you all as tools? It's not about what she thinks. It's about what you think ... especially now that she's gone." "I know," Megumi hung her head, "but trying to change her ... it underpins ... everything ... everything I do. I can't even get any work done unless I pretend she's watching me, now ..." "Yeah, it takes time," Brant nodded. He paused and then gently squeezed Megumi's shoulder, getting her attention again. "It takes time." It was hard not to think of his own situation and how blessed he was. It wasn't just one generation, either. He was blessed over several generations: his parents, his own generation, his daughters and nephew. Things could have been so much worse at any link along the chain, like in Megumi's case. Brant sincerely hoped that she would be able to grow past everything happening now and wind up in a better place, one with more support than she currently had. Abrams knew it was doing wonders for him. It was the reason he could think about Jessica without his mood suddenly taking a nose dive. They were the reason, and considering the things that had come to light, Megumi was definitely right about one thing. The children were the future they should be striving for. Brant felt that way from the moment he met them. The Kids Are Alright (Part 1/2) Thinking back on it, Brant wondered how Akilina would have approached Megumi on this, and whether or not the doctor would have even opened up to a nine year old ... "... right. Well I'm late, but thank you for listening, Brant. I'm not sure why it's so much easier to open up to people I'm not used to, but it's certainly convenient ..." She stepped away from the wall and then paused, an idea visibly hitting her. "By the way ... I don't know why you're here, but would you mind if I took a tissue sample ... in exchange for the embarrassing and somewhat incriminating story I just shared?" Brant grinned nervously. "You don't need to clone a pair of ears from me, Megumi. Other people will hear you out, trust me." Whatever rebuttal the doctor had for that got trapped behind her fist along with any potential laughter as she quickly covered her mouth. "But yeah, I'm just here to talk with the captain while I've still got the chance. May say hi to a few people on the way out, too. We'll see." ... and yes, Megumi was actually standing there in front of him now with a sampler in hand, eyes pleading behind her expensive glasses. "... what, seriously?" "I promise not to clone you or let this sample or anything derived from it be used for that purpose." ... formal. Brant sighed. "Oh, alri-agh!" Megumi took the sample from Brant's neck even before he could finish. It didn't hurt much, but the surprise certainly got him. "Thank you," Megumi said, the faintest smile appearing as she confirmed the cylinder had done its work. "As long as you're feeling better," Brant rubbed at his neck. Megumi slipped the cylinder into her inner coat pocket and turned to face the infirmary door. "No. I'm still dead inside ... but ... maybe there's a new spark." "Great," Brant grinned and started off down the hall, "hopefully a new you can spring up from that, then. Keep that spark going." Spark or no, there still wasn't much Megumi could do about the depressing look on her face, much less the dark cloud surrounding her, but she had more energy than she'd started out with. That was a pleasant surprise only dwarfed by the DNA she'd taken. Now she could figure out exactly what Brant's ancestry was without all the hearsay and guesswork that came with just talking about it. First, she had to head inside and let Nikolai know that he'd be able to get fitted for some prosthetic legs, soon. Brant looked over his hands as he reached the front of the first deck hallway. His left hand was bandaged up, even a ways up his wrist. His right hand only had a couple of sprained fingers to deal with, but was also holding a jacket, one of the same ones he and Chris had gotten 'Alkaev+' logos labeled onto. Carefully, he reached up to his face, where two fresh cuts weren't even partially hidden by the steri-strips. The smaller of the two cuts was on his jaw, running vertically below the jawline. The larger one was just a couple of millimeters away from his right eyebrow. Both cuts needed two strips each. Brant didn't think much of the wounds themselves; he was simply caught up on the idea that this might be the last time he and Jessica spoke in person--assuming she was willing, and the wounded warrior look was almost comical to him. Whether anyone else found it funny, Brant was glad that this would be the last time he'd ever have to fly up to the woman's window and make a bunch of noise to get her attention ... because it was. "Abrams to the bridge, is the captain in?" Brant knew she was, but tried to keep to his mental script until the situation changed. With Jessica learning to integrate with the ship, he couldn't help but wonder how many different ways he could have approached this. For one, a private chat wasn't out of the question no matter how busy Jessica was if she was pretty far along, though it would just be him and a disembodied voice or something. Considering the other reason he was here though ... it needed to be in person. This way was probably for the best given the way she usually responded to his requests ... "Is it alright if I come up for a few minutes?"

Hitomi figured Motherloader had enough self assurance that he wouldn't be put off by Melanie's comment ... "Good enough? Wee wee, Madame Kitty," Motherloader playfully shot back. ... she didn't expect his rebuttal to be so silly, though. As for this Keizerin, Hitomi only vaguely recognized the name, but couldn't pair it with anything she remembered. The day Felix ended his stint as a lone wolf was also the day Hitomi stopped paying attention to the solo ladder. This clearly wasn't the case for Motherloader and other people in the cafe. In fact, Motherloader got to searching for something right there on the spot, occasionally sparing Monika a curious glance as he skimmed a dozen video clips. Hitomi tried to just stay focused on this next introduction. Before they could really get started however, another girl swooped in and blurted out something--presumably about herself--before quickly vacating, again. Hitomi only really had enough time to blink before it was over, and she wasn't sure what she'd heard or what to do about it. She supposed it was best to just ... try and focus on the micro-interview. She could worry about the nano-interview once things calmed down, more. Thankfully she had enough to work with; Aeon tier was a big deal. It was definitely big enough to make a fuss over. "Aww, you're not even going to offer any fun 1v1 lessons to sweeten the deal?" "Hey Beebs, check this out," Motherloader said, putting a video clip directly onto the surface of the table. Beebs, now? "I swear to--oh, frame assassin!" Now Hitomi knew exactly how to pay back Motherloader for being so annoying and pushy. BB see, BB do. I'll run you through. That's what I'll do~

If Melanie felt nervous in a cafe like this, she should try being up on that stage. Then again, if she was a popular streamer, being stared at by hundreds of people probably wasn't that big of a deal for her, right? She did mention something about a screen; she was probably used to interacting from the comfort of home, with no physical risk. That seemed fair. And again, she really ought to try being up on that stage. Hitomi was certain that would make a tiny interview like this much easier. "Oh it's fine," she smiled, thinking of Motherloader for a brief second. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mewlanie. If the tryouts go well, I look forward to working together." With that, Hitomi offered her hand for the nervous streamer to shake. Linus took the opportunity to clarify the situation to everyone, even making his way further back in the line to make sure everyone could hear him. Once it was clear that no one needed to rush things or try to beat each other out just for an audience, Linus got back to their table and gave Hitomi some reassurance, as well. He also came up with the option of splitting the work a little to hopefully save some time; one of them could handle this cafe portion, and the other could handle the tryouts. Hitomi couldn't even describe just how tempting that was, the thought of messing around in one of the arcades for a bit, and really getting to know these new people. The sooner they got started, the sooner she could show Motherloader that he had to be more than just a descent player to be on the team. Interestingly, Motherloader hadn't said anything since Linus addressed all the hopefuls, and was now just quietly observing things. If he was going to stay like this, then maybe keeping the current meet and greet like it was would be the better option. After all, the more people they brought to the tryouts, the more fun they could potentially have. This was a team sport, after all ... and to be honest, Hitomi couldn't get rid of the mental image she had of Motherloader trying to secure his spot on the team only to get blocked by the Great Wall of BB and then immediately taken out by Sicarius. As far as she was concerned, the good ol' shield and sword combo would counter whatever solo shenanigans were inflating Motherloader's ego. "Honestly, I'm torn," Hitomi smiled through a small wince, "but if we want things to go faster, we can split the line again and each take half." "I'll take one," Motherloader shrugged. It seemed like he didn't care one way or the other, but Hitomi figured he was just saving face. "We've got this," she said through clinched teeth, "Thaaanks."

Even with Melanie's thick French accent adding an extra layer of complexity to the exchange, Hitomi was picking up the gist of things: Melanie de la Croix, or 'Mewlanie' as far as Team Odyssey was concerned, had some incentive from a sponsor to join a team. The timing seemed to be just right to land her here, following up on Hitomi's hint about recruiting new team members. Before she'd decided how to respond, Melanie's hat came off, and these feline-esque ears came out. Hitomi heard plenty about people having extensive modifications made to their bodies in the past, even seen pictures and video. The mod crazes had passed for the most part, and moved mostly underground, so seeing it in person was somewhat novel. It was also far less extensive than some of the mods Hitomi had run into. There were way too many people out there trying to look more like varan. This cat girl thing ... she could handle for the most part. "... huh." Aside from the shyness in public, what kind of person was Mewlanie? A streamer, someone with some hefty body mods, and timely, she definitely seemed like she would have a noticeable effect on the team and its image. It was obvious she wasn't anything like Motherloader, but there was probably something just as bothersome on the other end of the spectrum, some opposite extreme that was just as bad for the team. Hitomi was still feeling optimistic about the French feline frame pilot, though. Mewlanie said she had reached platinum while solo, which meant no matter how meek she was at the moment, she wouldn't hold back the team. Just the opposite, if anything. "She seems alright," Motherloader shrugged as he took a spot next to Hitomi and bent forward over the table a little. He wasn't just acting like a shoe in, he was acting like he had real influence. Hitomi found some choice words for the pest when Melanie made an offer they couldn't refuse, not unless they were stupid or actively avoiding the warship modes altogether. "Wait, really? Anything on the list?" If she could afford body mods that didn't leave her dependent on medication, then ... Suddenly, someone further back in the bulging line said, "No way! You can't make that offer!" "Err ..." Mewlanie and the motherload would have to wait a moment, Hitomi realized. "Yes, actually," she rose up from her seat and called back, "she can! No one said how many people we're signing on, and I still want to do some try outs at the arcade after this, so just relax!" Those try outs weren't a new idea, but they would be a perfect opportunity to give Motherloader the boot and have fun while doing it. It ... seemed like the right way to go. Kind of.

Well if this wasn't obviously a publicity stunt to the crowd by now, then they were probably busy browsing the warship catalog. Hitomi was already getting notifications, so she was glad she'd left her phone on its more discreet settings. The poor thing actually decided to stop bothering her after the first few messages came in, apparently figuring out the new, temporary trend. Hitomi had no idea how many messages she actually had coming in, but her gut told her at least a dozen so far ... With this convention being broadcast more or less everywhere, Team Odyssey's fifteen minutes of fame had begun. If coming out and facing the crowd was nerve wracking, then rejoining them was downright overwhelming. It was made all the worse for Hitomi when she noticed people getting slightly reorganized further back. She could see a few individuals trying to get up to the front where she'd been. Naturally, someone, a young man likely in his late teens, he'd already been near the front, and he muscled his way up to Hitomi once she was back in what passed for the 'front row,' just behind the railing ... "There's more to come," Matsuo promised, just as the warship highlights wrapped up and the Battlenet logo--and obvious placeholder--returned, "but first, please give a warm welcome to Battlenet's own ... Kirara~" Hitomi groaned inwardly. Why'd he have to do the accen-! "You're BB, right?" The young man asked Hitomi with a friendly smile. She could feel this guy's confidence, but something about him just felt ... off. Her suspicions only grew when he skipped what might have been an awkward attempt at a handshake in such a packed crowd and placed his hand on her shoulder. Hitomi couldn't take her eyes off that hand, and kind of wished her father hadn't just left the stage with Felix. What terrible timing ... Meanwhile up on the stage, rather than coming out from either side like Matsuo and Felix had, Kirara appeared up on the displays. She was a girl right out of early cyberspace, with glowing blue eyes, bright colored hair, and lines of light running the length of her limbs and torso. Like Hitomi, she was of Asian descent, however she was clearly older, her figure more developed. "Welcome to Batcon 2405, everyone! It's Kirara, calling in from ... mmm very close by, actually~" "You got my app, right?" The 'hand' man asked as Kirara got the con goers engaged, again. "... your what?" Application? What, like the ones she was constantly getting, right now? The ones she hadn't had a chance to even check yet? Really? "I just got off the stage--and no, I don't have any augs." Not that she couldn't afford A.R. implants, but Hitomi felt the people arguing against putting devices in their heads just to stay on top of every little blip in cyberspace had some good points. There were some people out here that just didn't live in 'reality' with the rest of humanity anymore. "Pch," The man rolled his eyes but his hand stayed right on Hitomi's shoulder, and her eyes stayed fixed on it, "I sent my app to you guys practically yesterday ... you know, before it was suddenly a thing. So," he leaned in closer and lowered his voice, "when you mentioned Odyssey up there, I figured I'd come say hi before the rest of the randoms do." Hitomi almost missed everything he'd said thanks to how annoyingly close he was, but once her brain registered everything, the implications were clear. He was one of the two applicants she'd mentioned to Linus. "So you're ... Bel Belim ...?" Please? "Hah, what a stupid name," the man laughed, "Nah, BBabe. I'm Motherloader." Run. "We're heading into Battlenet's biggest and best season yet," Kirara said, hopping back a few steps from the frame, "but let's not forget all the incredible fights we've seen along the way!" Suddenly another frame appeared beside Kirara and she reached over and grabbed the thing with both hands, pulling it in front of her. "In fact ..." she tried not to laugh, "here are some of my favorites! Enjoyyy~" There was no escaping Motherloader. About all Hitomi managed was getting his hand off her shoulder. After that, she tried to check her messages while Kirara regaled the audience with what were admittedly some of the best moments during last season. Hitomi almost wanted to thank Kirara for distracting Motherloader with some of the really good ones ... almost. Unfortunately, at some point, there was a kill clip from solo that was so ridiculous, Motherloader, along with quite a few others, began laughing hysterically. Hitomi only vaguely recalled her right eardrum hurting more than the left, and Motherloader yelling about an E grade weapon. Hitomi tried to use the time to separate out those interested in joining from those just sending compliments or critique on her looks or what happened up on stage. A couple were a bit difficult to read at first. Some seemed ready to prove themselves in the more hands on approach through a match. She also got a hold of Linus' waypoint. Reluctantly, she put together a mass reply with that waypoint for the people that looked like potentials, having only read the first twelve messages from start to finish. Once she sent the message out, Motherloader started focusing in on her again. He seemed so sure he was going to be on the team. Admittedly, Hitomi wasn't helping that perception. She hadn't flat out said no, reason being, she finally realized what was off about this guy. It wasn't confidence she was sensing from him, but arrogance, and that oh so dangerous sense of entitlement. As much as she wanted to put Linus' suggestion into action and just ignore him, that was a lot more difficult when he was standing right next to her. Telling him he wasn't the kind of player they were looking for right here and now meant putting up with whatever his reaction was for the next ... fifteen, twenty minutes? Hitomi promised herself she'd let him down gently as soon as she had enough space to actually slip away afterward ... Beggars couldn't be choosers? Well, Team Odyssey wasn't here at Batcon to 'beg.' They were here to build. As soon as the first day's main event was over, Hitomi did her best to get to the cafe Linus had picked out. Naturally, Motherloader followed her the whole way, not content with her carefully worded rejection. It wasn't all bad, though. The guy was so arrogant, he was playing bodyguard, perhaps without even realizing it. While Hitomi hurried toward the cafe, her creepy knight kept heading off anyone trying to get close and talk to her. Now, if he would just stop dropping his imaginary status as a member of Team Odyssey, this would be a decent arrangement. Getting him to go away eventually might turn into a scene, though. As they closed in on the cafe though, Hitomi hit up on an idea, one that would actually be kind of fun for her. ... the cafe was packed, or at least the outside was. Peeking inside, it was clear that the staff members were trying to keep the establishment as comfortable as possible for their customers. Unfortunately there were plenty of early hopefuls, or at least curious people surrounding the table and obscuring Linus completely. Still, given the situation, Hitomi didn't need to see him directly to know that was their table. She also didn't need to even look over her shoulder to know Motherloader was still nearby. He was probably going to try to take a seat at their table too, wasn't he ...? "Inertiaaaa!" In the last leg of the journey, Hitomi carefully squeezed through the last barrier of people crowding the team's table. To her surprise, Felix was there with Linus. "Oh, Sensei!" How many of the people were here to see him and how many were here to check out Team Odyssey was a little unclear at the moment, but Hitomi would put money on Felix having a much bigger share of the crowd, particularly the people peeking in from outside. She quickly took a seat at the table, hoping not to hold things up, any longer. "Alright, I'm here! First order of business, stop crowding around the table! Second order of business, if you're here for Sensei, get on that side and if you're here to ask about the team, come over to this side," she indicated her right and then her left. To Hitomi's surprise, Motherloader hadn't gotten through the crowd in time, and only reappeared as they began to split into two distinct groups. "B-by the way, Linus," she whispered to her teammate, "He found us. It's him. Motherloader. ... couldn't ... escape."

Now that she was beginning to come down from the spectacle, Hitomi realized her father would probably try to work his way toward putting a spotlight on her. Maybe. She found herself bracing for it either way, rather than worrying about whatever the rest of the actual program would be. Matsuo took a moment to pull up his sleeve, which revealed the emitter for a holographic display. Once he turned it on, he started fiddling around for a moment. "There we are~" A broadcast message was sent out from the convention stationwide, reaching anyone and everyone with a known interest in Frame Ops and no special restrictions on messages received. The message sent by Battlenet was an overview, as well as some important fine print covering the introduction of warships into Battlenet's Frame Ops. Hitomi checked her display reluctantly as the screens both above the stage and scattered all throughout the area began to showcase the gems of that same message. Little gameplay clips would play briefly with each new listing, showing off some of the maneuvers and firepower of the featured ship, before moving onto the next. Hitomi wound up multitasking somewhat, her eyes darting between her own display and the center screen above Matsuo and Felix. It was no surprise that the Independence II class was the first one shown. It was also one of the most expensive, though the actual cost of these things weren't exactly prominent in the listings. In fact, this brochure was really pushing the fact that a team with a big enough sponsor wouldn't necessarily have to put down any credits for one of these assets, and seemed wholly invested in that method of acquiring warships. In just about every ship she'd seen thus far, Hitomi found a listing of sponsors that would cover most or all of the cost for one of these ships for any teams they were sponsoring. Hitomi almost missed the 22,000cr price tag for the Standard Edition Independence II. That was far above a quarter's earning for a wage slave, so it was no wonder the sponsors were getting most of the attention here. The Premium and Special Edition versions were even crazier, with the latter being about a year's earning for an entry level worker down at the docks. Of course, those versions came with more than just a ship. The Special Edition had a bunch of frames and even a mobile worker force thrown in. Battlenet assets were no joke. It was no wonder they came down so hard on anyone trying to circumvent the rules; there was a lot of money at stake, here. Hitomi was slightly amused to see Babylonian ships so early in her perusing. It wasn't terribly long ago that tensions were extremely high between the League and Babylon, so seeing them add some of Babylon's best ships made her chuckle. After all, it was a good sign, for her--as well as her Babylonian friend, Carmen--and for peace. Maybe it wasn't that big of a deal, though. Most of the companies weren't that interested in interplanetary politics, or at least they didn't make a show of it. Seeing the Millennium class battlecruiser not far down from the Independence II helped remind Hitomi why the Jovians and Babylonians were getting along a little better these days. The Millennium class was partly developed by Global Arms, and it was phasing out the Galla class cruisers Babylon had been flaunting for centuries. The Babylonians ultimately went with a significantly larger version of the design, and supposedly tacked on the name 'Millennium' as a statement of how long the ship would remain viable ... but the final design still had that classic Jovian blockiness to it ... Naturally, being distracted by actual information on the warships Battlenet was adding, Hitomi forgot that her father wanted her near the front for a reason. "Incredible isn't it?" Hitomi felt a chill run up her spine as she snapped back to reality. When she glanced up at the stage, her father was looking right at her. As if the eye contact wasn't enough of a hint that she was out of time, he even gestured at her. "Hitomi!" Hearing her name echo throughout the entire plaza was the biggest shock she'd felt in years. The bewildered teen's only saving grace was that the displays were still showing the audience the best of the best from the new team assets. Only the center monitor was displaying Hitomi, and only because a small camera seemed just as interested in her as Matsuo was. "Come up here for a moment." Hitomi complied ... making her way carefully over the railing. She was careful climbing up on stage, but Matsuo gave her a hand up just to be safe. Hitomi couldn't bear to turn and face the crowd directly, even with a good portion of them checking out the full ship listings. It was starting to make sense, though. Matsuo wanted an opportunity to help her without stopping the whole show. What better time than during a slight lull like this? Of course having to come up onto stage was going to net her way more attention than she expected. If she stayed mixed in with the crowd, people probably wouldn't have even realized that she and Matsuo were family. Hitomi supposed it would be stupid of him to try and hide that fact, anyway. Like with most things, Matsuo was just rolling with it ... and adding some momentum of his own ... "Your team's preparing for the upcoming gaming season, right?" Hitomi squinted. She knew where he was leading her, but wasn't sure if she should mention their team's name. Battlenet hadn't hit Odyssey with a warning to shape up just yet, but anyone looking up the now two man, unsponsored team might suspect they were on their last legs. Still, it wasn't worth hiding and dodging every little issue that came up. Publicity was the only way out of this mess, so why not just do what her father always did and just roll with it? If she stuck with Linus and his endeavors, then they were eventually going to become famous, with all the praise and ridicule that came with it. Better to just play life like she played the game. Time to suffocate their enemies and win over their skeptics with pure, unbridled optimism! "Yep!" Hitomi matched her father's smile with her own, "Team Odyssey's going all in this year." If Matsuo was surprised by Hitomi's positive energy, he certainly wasn't showing it, only reflecting a mirror image. "Wonderful! Any of the new ships catch your eye?" Hitomi began to slowly lift her head up. "Ummm, yeeeeah ..." Soon, both she and Matsuo were both staring up at the genuine article floating above the event. Matsuo laughed, along with some in the crowd. "We could definitely use one of those~" Crossing her arms, Hitomi began pretending to mull over their options aloud. "That Titan looks pretty good too, though. So many options ..." "Indeed~ Now, are you in the market for anything in particular, or just looking to participate in the new game modes?" Hitomi suspected Matsuo wasn't really asking about the ships or the warship modes that time. No, he had to be hinting at the team itself, and what it needed to actually compete this year. Fairly easy to leap off from that. "I like all rounders, myself," Hitomi said, glancing out at the crowd, "but once we find our sponsor for this season, I'm sure we can convince them to get us an extra ship so we can change things up~ We really could use some new team members, too." "Ah!" Matsuo looked so pleased Hitomi knew for certain his last question had been the cue, "Well there's no better place to look," he waved his arm out, indicating the crowd and the rest of the plaza. He was right about that. Their online searches had been abysmal. Hopefully having people to talk to in person would work out better.

Even before the lights all throughout the plaza began to dim, people were applauding, Hitomi included ... and her palms were still hurting. The displays were showing them nothing but black, and as the lights turned almost completely off, the lights from the odd showy outfit and people's mobile devices stood out like nothing else. The Independence class vessel drifting blissfully above them was a little ways past the stage and those watching from the shopping center would be able to just barely catch sight of its engines. Hitomi couldn't help but spare the ship a glance while waiting for the presentation video. Up on stage, Matsuo gave Felix a thumbs up and a toothy grin, just as the ambiance picked up. It was starting ... The Battle Networks' logo appeared in white amidst the darkness on every last display at the event, which prompted a few scattered claps and some whistles. A few people even snapped some photos. ... when the darkness resolved into something recognizable, the audience was confronted with the post apocalyptic wastelands Frame Ops's campaign missions were famous for. For the uninitiated, it would be difficult to tell what planet they were on, but it was Earth, North America to be specific. It was midday, and as the scene was set, more and more ruins came into view. The camera drew the audience back for a wider view of the area when something massive began to pass beneath it. After a few tense establishing shots, it was clear to everyone that they were looking at an Independence II class battlecruiser, one with some aesthetic changes that seemed in keeping with the times. It loomed over the city ruins as support craft and combat frames began securing the area. Whatever this ship was doing here, its crew did not want to be disturbed. Eventually the camera pulled all the way back from the ship, and what looked like a big operation against another faction began. The whole area shook as the warship began a full assault against an unseen target, firing plasma weapons and magnetic accelerator cannons and high yield missiles. The screen faded to black again as the thunderous salvo rumbled across the plaza. The atmospheric controls seemed to be immersing the audience even further by kicking up a breeze at ground level. Warm air raced out from the stage and Hitomi flinched at the sudden thought of actually standing under all of that devastating firepower. Words appeared in white ... Will you stand and fight? The words faded and were quickly replaced by a second message ... ... or yield? As the darkness faded, a small group of gunships could be seen making their way toward a barely hidden ground base. Another operation was underway, one involving several high performance frames. Each of them was being outfitted with a large booster system, one many players would recognize from some of the more difficult campaign missions, as well as a few of the special multiplayer stages. There were three units in total, and it seemed inevitable that they planned to take the fight directly to the warship, in the only way they could ... a direct, close range assault. Preparations didn't take long, and each of the three frames assumed its ready position on its own catapult as the ground crews prepared to launch them. Would this really be enough to take down a ship of that size? Hitomi certainly didn't think so, but the tension, and the hope that maybe they stood some kind of chance kept her gaze fixed on them. As soon as launch preparations were complete, evidenced by the presentation's score and its dramatic buildup, the target was marked on their radars. Like virtually everyone suspected, they were going after that warship. One thing Hitomi noted was that there were a lot of targets besides just the ship. They were scattered over a large area. That likely meant the enemy had gotten a foothold and was now controlling the entire area. There had probably been a decent jump forward in the timeline during the scene change. Hopefully they didn't get banged up along the way, she thought with a grimace. They would have enough trouble trying to close in on the ship even without the grunts on the ground. The launch order came and the three frames were launched from the catapults. Their booster units all ignited at the same moment, and they began a perfectly synchronized battlefield insertion that was played up to eleven! Hitomi gripped the rail as another gust wrapped around her ankles and the three frames raced toward their targets. "Go ... go ... go ..." Hitomi urged, fully immersed at this point. She couldn't help but imagine herself as the lead frame, spearheading one of the most dangerous insertions ever. She hoped the pilot in there was smiling. She couldn't right now, not with her heart pounding like this, but she hoped they were. This was just one of those missions where you'd feel amazing just for trying, just for hopping into the machine and charging down a titan. Half a dozen flybys showcased the sheer power and speed of the booster units carrying these three mysterious pilots and their frames. Then ... it happened. They began evasive maneuvers, even with the boosters pushing them hard toward the incoming fire. The lead frame flew low toward the ground, evading a beam of plasma that would have annihilated it, and launched a single missile toward the enemies in front of it. It quickly burst open to reveal its true nature as a spread missile, and released its payload. The small swarm of missiles destroyed the forward outpost that had been attacking them. Every battlemech that was out in the open was brought down instantly. Cutscene power was on full display here, but it didn't bring Hitomi out of the action, not when the warship itself started shooting at them. The three frames pressed on past the first line of defense, and began closing in on the city while dodging everything the warship threw at them. Hitomi could almost sense it, though. She knew they couldn't possibly make it all the way to their target without a scratch. She didn't realize just how bad it would be, though. Just as they reached the city, that old refitted behemoth managed to strike a direct blow against the right most frame, completely destroying it in one shot. The left most frame's booster took a glancing blow and exploded, causing it to fall into the city, where it endured a hard landing. Without enough time and speed to escape, it was brought down by a full burst from one of the warship's main batteries. That just left the lead frame. Their booster broke up as planned as soon as they reached the ship. Hitomi was leaning halfway over the rail, hoping against hope that somehow this one pilot alone could finish the fight. It was absolutely brutal. This one frame picked off countless point defense weapons and support units scattered over the ship, all while staying out of the line of fire of the larger guns, but it required incredible momentum, and despite the mounting damage, it was clear that it wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough. Hitomi knew they had to deal some kind of critical blow to the ship, but the bridge was too well protected, and the outer hull was too strong for the weapons the frame carried. In a sudden twist of fate, the frame was struck hard in the chest, and that same speed that had been carrying it through enemy fire was now forcing it uncontrollably away from the ship. A gunship was crushed as the heroic frame plowed through it on its way down into the ruins below, and Hitomi realized that this battle was simply too much for a single frame ... even three. Possibly even ten. It was just too much. If there was one thing that seemed depressingly realistic about this presentation, it was that even through insertion, figura stood almost no chance against a battlecruiser ... Hitomi braced herself for the end as the seemingly doomed frame came crashing down, rocking the plaza itself and sliding to a dead stop by the road. The camera focused on the warship, and a particular gun battery that was lining up the kill shot on this horrifically outgunned hero. "C-come on," Hitomi pleaded with tears in her eyes. There had to be something they could do. The frame's main optics were closed off behind armored shutters, and it felt to Hitomi like a dead man closing his eyes in anticipation of the end, which only served to make her worry even more. It just couldn't end like this! "Target acquired." The words came from everywhere, even speaker systems that hadn't been linked to the video. Something, instinct maybe, brought Hitomi's eyes upward, and she saw the the real Independence's gun batteries quietly repositioning themselves. She might have started panicking if they were aimed right at the plaza, but there seemed to be something strategic about the exact angle of the guns and the placement of the ship itself. "Weapons free." Everything that had been building up became clear when brilliant flashes of light came from the actual ship, just seconds before lights from heaven rained down on the modified Independence class battlecruiser. Above the convention, streaks of light raced from the massive ship's guns off into the distance, and they just kept coming. In the presentation, those lights seemed to manifest right in time with the real ones, and bore into their target with contemptuous ease. Clearly the present day model had better upkeep, because the refit version from Frame Op's future was torn in half and eventually shredded to pieces in the ensuing bombardment. The camera switched to the inside of the sole surviving frame's cockpit, showing only the lower half of the pilot's face. From what Hitomi could tell, they were probably meant to represent a very young Felix. The pilot grinned, and Hitomi with him, and the final fade to black came. "Target sunk. Awaiting new orders." FRAME OPS Hitomi couldn't help but cheer and clap and even jump a few times. Show or not, that pilot was saved by the very same ship floating right above them. Now she understood. Sure, having a ship show up at the event was impressive, but having it actually fire its weapons to save a character during a presentation video? Just whoa! Hitomi supposed they hadn't been real beams, otherwise the station would be in serious trouble, right now, but the look and feel of that salvo from the ground completely overpowered her sense of time and place, and made that desolate future in Frame Ops seem like it was only a literal stone's throw away. She wanted to go meet that lucky pilot, congratulate him for not getting vaporized, and even give him a big hug for taking on that behemoth. "They have arrived, ladies and gentlemen~" came Matsuo's voice as the stage lights and most of the others began to come back on. The displays left the Frame Ops logo up, and quietly faded in the Battle Network logo just above it in a smaller size. "They have arrived~"

Was it noon, already? Megumi had risen up and fallen right back into bed multiple times, already. Lying on either side of her were her body doubles. The one she was facing had its eyes closed, and was breathing softly, almost in time with her. It wasn't truly 'breathing,' only mimicking the act. For the past couple of days the depressed doctor had only been able to see Michelle in these doubles, rather than herself or even her sisters. It was only natural. Her life had turned into pure chaos overnight, all thanks to that woman ... and Nicholas. Finally forcing herself out of bed, Megumi grabbed her phone and checked her inbox, expecting at least one message from Ellen. Sure enough, it was another update. The investigation into the sudden death of Doctor Michelle Amparo wasn't really going anywhere. They seemed like they were ready to write it off as an attack by Apotheosis. It wouldn't be the first time they took out someone in transit ... Of course, Megumi already knew what happened. She knew that Nicholas of all people had been the one to take out her plane. She knew because the insufferable bastard had called her and wasn't very subtle about what had happened. He hadn't directly incriminated himself in apologizing for the incident, but it was obvious ... and she went off on him right there in the infirmary. Ever since, Bennet and Tambre had their work cut out for them, tending to everything in the infirmary while Megumi continued her studies on cybernetics in the privacy of her own room. With Michelle dead, Megumi's whole reason for becoming a doctor was effectively gone. There was nothing to prove to the dead, and nothing to prove to herself. There was just ... nothing. This was only a job, a means to an end, and a brief one at that. So many other doctors seemed to find a great deal of personal fulfillment in this kind of work, being able to save lives more often than not, and contribute something real and tangible to the world. To Megumi, it wasn't nearly that profound or motivating, though she often wished it was. This must have been how Sarah felt all the time; she wrote as a means to an end, not because she enjoyed it or found any fulfillment in it. That was why her stories tended to be so ... tragic, needlessly, and sometimes even spitefully so. Megumi's only purpose now was to keep her sisters alive and healthy, and perform all the duties she was contractually obligated to do for the Federation. And that ... was just barely enough to get her out of bed in the morning, especially with her sisters safe in California. She'd proven that much since learning about Michelle's death. Since Megumi hadn't allowed herself any visitors while she was in her room, which was most of the time these last couple of days, she'd cut off most opportunities to be poked and prodded in an attempt to cheer her up. The wounds were still relatively fresh, and so the doctor's gaze was void of any kind of purpose and completely unfocused. She felt nothing but emptiness where imminent vindication and undeniable truth should have been. If Michelle could have just stayed alive for a little longer ... or if Megumi herself hadn't gotten so distracted by the war and trying to get Nikolai walking, again ... The sudden pain that caught Megumi was borderline physical. This was the last place she wanted to be drifting off to. She couldn't possibly regret trying to help Nikolai. Yes, technically she could start harboring regrets. Morally, she absolutely couldn't allow that kind of thinking. Megumi had no logical reason to believe she could have cracked the code and finished her research with an extra week of crunch time. Maybe she could have, but given her intentions ... her admittedly impure intentions, helping Nikolai was more important in the short term. At least she'd invested her time into something that would ultimately pan out, even if it had nothing to do with her personally ... It was time to freshen up and get dressed. Then the doctor would try not to stand out too much to the normal people on the ship. There was no hiding her dread from nearby TKs, unfortunately. She doubted she would fare well with the normals either, though. Even if not for the look on her face, she was behaving erratically, avoiding people and delegating to her assistants far more than usual. Even so, Megumi had to get to work, now. She was close to being able to get Nikolai standing, again. Very close. It was time. Finally. They had actually used up that whole week, too. Firmia was already a little peeved before getting the news. In a week, her people had gotten quite a lot down, and so there was no telling what kind of preparations Apotheosis had managed, especially if they were getting desperate. Worse still, if they thought they were about to lose the war, then they might have some desertions. It may seem mean spirited, but they needed to wipe Apotheosis out, not just beat the crap out of them. In the aftermath of this war, Firmia had no doubt that there would be plenty of stragglers, or those that managed to slip away back into the ANF and EU populations. There might even be cells out there that would regroup and begin operating independently. Hell, the Sacarians might scoop up the survivors and rearm them. The ANF was stretched thin, Firmia reminded herself. Even if they wanted to crush Apotheosis completely, about all they could afford right now was a technical victory. So be it, then. The Alkaev had decided a while back that she was going to use the Apotheosis stragglers to test her own weapons once the war was over. An indeterminate number of birds with one punt gun. She only wished there was a more effective way of ensuring this group was put down decisively and permanently. No surviving lieutenants poking their heads out with their followers once the dust settled and making a mess, again. Speaking of messes, there was more to clean up after this war than just Apotheosis. In addition to finding a way to deal with the Sacarians, Firmia also wanted to figure out what to do about the older members of her family. Dima was losing power, but he was still dangerous. Rosa ... less so. In fact she was completely broken at this point. A brief chat with Brant and Chris revealed that the woman nearly shot Dima and ended all of this after learning about the children. Such an act would have obviously resulted in her getting brought down by security in a hail of gunfire. That would have been ... disturbing. Not at all surprising, though. Firmia felt just as homicidal at times. The young captain had spoken with Rosa a few times while waiting for the ANF to give the go ahead. It hadn't been pretty, and Firmia shouldered some of the responsibility for that. There were brief moments where she wanted to forgive her mother for everything that had happened ... but they were just so brief. It was complicated and painful, but the more she thought back on everything that had happened, and what was happening now ... she just couldn't. The more she saw Brant and Chris together, the more she wanted to fly off the handle. It really wasn't that hard, being a decent person, and yet those two whores nearly destroyed Brant completely over their impatience and lust. Firmia told her mother she wouldn't forgive her, though the woman wasn't explicitly asking for forgiveness. She clearly thought it impossible. It was all just an errand Brant had sent her on, a peacemaking exercise. Rosa was effectively suicidal at this point, and the only reason she was reaching out to her daughter was because Brant insisted. What good was that? And why did it matter at this point? Blood still meant something to Firmia, a great deal in fact, so for her siblings' sake, she didn't try to completely cut ties with their mother. She just didn't have any personal attachment left and wanted that to be clearly understood. Dima killed off the Rosa that Firmia wanted to bond with, and if not for her younger siblings, she might even put this hollowed out woman out of her misery. It was strange. Those three preteens were the latest arrivals, and now so much was beginning to revolve around them. Their safety, their happiness, their well being, they were almost being waited on at times. Firmia was almost envious, but as a captain, she got special treatment of sorts, too. Still, the effect Vasilly, Liliana, and Akilina had on the crew in general was amazing. Prior to her and Hannah's little stunt in the Reign, things had been feeling a little too tense around here. THE CHILD RESCUE MISSION Picking them up had probably been one of Hannah's best ideas. Even with all of her doubts and concerns, things were really starting to come together. Firmia had even found a good job for Akilina, one the ship honestly needed if they were going to avoid the kind of pointless drama the Riese was prone to. Well, it was just about time to make the announcement to the rest of the crew and get prepared for their tour of the ANF's battered territories. First, though ... a quick check of their progress in R&D was in order. Rather than pestering people directly, Firmia just had everyone forward reports that she could peruse at her leisure. Some things she still picked up directly, though. For example, she learned from Sasha himself that his special drive was completed and he had half a dozen prototypes ready to go, which meant drone construction was well underway. Brant had also come through for Firmia in designing both the combat drone AIs, and the new AMS unit, but construction of the latter and implementation of the former weren't his purview. The AMS 20 'Faye' was a new type of mobile suit that would make everyone's lives easier when it came to hunting down Apotheosis and people like them. Firmia also had the mechanics trying to construct another MS using Carlos' Rhea as the base. If they took her suggestions a bit too literally, this thing would be a genuine monster once it was finished, and either Gordon or Edson could really chip in going forward. There seemed to be just enough time to actually complete some of these projects, too. As long as they had time, Firmia was going to take advantage and try to get as many units combat ready as humanly possible ... and beyond.

"Linus," Hitomi sounded relieved and excited at the same time, "It's time for Plan H! Dad might be just what we need to get a good publicity boost, here. He told me to find a spot up front, and ..." Glancing around, Hitomi was fairly certain this was as close as anyone from the audience could get without being invited up on stage. On that note, the crowd seemed pretty well behaved. People weren't testing the rails as far as she could see, even though no security drones had made their way onto the scene, yet. Then again, Battlenet was probably relying on the plaza's security drones, which were tucked away behind unassuming panels the like. Right, focus. "Iiii made it to the front row. I think he's going to give our team a shoutout~ We can use that and find some interested players after the presentation." There were downsides, to be certain. With fifteen seconds of fame came scrutinizing gazes that wouldn't think much of Team Odyssey in its current state. They had done considerably well in the past, but their bad luck recently would look like a death spiral to most people, and Linus' suggestions from their last talk would just seem like the natural course. They had talent, so why not join another team and not go down with the ship? For Hitomi, it was just plain stubbornness. Felix had never had to do anything like that. When things got hard, he just brought more ammo, and that's what she was going to do. If it meant having to get over her aversion to a bazillion eyes bearing down on her, judging every little thing ... so be it. They would be praised in the end. Matsuo was amused by Felix's decision to help Hitomi's team after the presentation. It was a good idea in theory, certainly not as counterproductive as the pure hand holding and shameless promotion less principled players would be begging him for. "Heheh, with you with them, they'll be dealing with more than just auditions, you know. But I suppose that just comes with the territory." The timing of this call seemed as off as the last one, and for much the same reason. The welcome message disappeared in short order and the various screens began showing the stage. That was when Mr. Moto himself stepped out from backstage, dressed in a navy blue suit. "Do me a favor," Hitomi quickly said, lowering her voice to avoid drawing attention, "Find a spot where we can handle any interested players and send me a waypoint!" Matsuo reached the center of the stage right as the warship began to drift directly over the plaza. For the first time, the roar for its engines could finally be heard, albeit barely. Hitomi could only scowl at her father as the man tried to act like he didn't know the thing was right above him. Instead of immediately acknowledging the ship along with everyone else, Matsuo took a moment to scan the crowd, looking curious and confused by the skyward stares and incessant finger and camera pointing. "... something wrong?" Matsuo asked, his hidden microphone carrying his voice throughout the plaza and the whole event. Finally, Matsuo got to the part of his little act where he followed the upward focus of many in the audience to the warship overhead. "Ohhh," Matsuo exclaimed, really hamming things up. Hitomi could only pretend she didn't find her father's antics amusing at times. Seriously, though ... "Would you look at that!" Matsuo looked back down at the crowd with a youngster's awe and amazement. "What's a battleship doing here at the convention ...?" Hitomi scowled at that one. As if they hadn't paid millions to convince Scipio to lone them the ship for a while. Also, it was technically a battlecruiser, but that was an unwinnable debate about semantics at this point. Maybe someday everyone would put their differences aside and stamp out the weirdos calling them 'battle carriers.' That heresy needed to stop. "Erp-!" Hitomi flinched when Matsuo spotted her and grinned knowingly at her. He must have been both happy and amused that she'd made it this far up. "You know," Matsuo looked to the wider audience, "It just so happens ... mm, one thing at a time," he pretended to shift gears, "First, let me welcome all of you to Batcon 2405. Each of you, your interest in Frame Ops, in Battlenet, in your fellows, that's what makes this community strong. It's what keeps everything going, and our community growing. It's why the Frame Ops community is one of the longest enduring gaming communities in modern times." Hitomi found herself nodding at her father's assessment. For some reason a lot of gaming communities would shrink to almost nothing after perhaps a decade or so. Only the people who had too much time on their hands or an unhealthy attachment to those franchises seemed to still be around after that. Frame Ops, even with plenty of other similar titles out there, was only getting bigger, even after roughly two decades. There were probably politics of a sort working their unsightliness in the background, but overall, Hitomi was glad to have something so big that she belonged to. Not an army, or a stellar religion, but a group of people that liked to blow stuff up in cyberspace, and others who liked to watch. "Still ..." Matsuo seemed to be having a little brainstorming session with himself up on stage, "we don't want things to get stale now, do we? We've heard back from you for years about all things you want added into Battlenet's Frame Ops from the base game, and I am pleased to announce that once again ... your wishes have been granted. My dear friend and teammate is here with us today, and I think it only fitting for the legend himself to show you just what we're doing here at Battlenet, and the new content that's coming. Please give a warm welcome to the Felix Lis, ladies and gentlemen, the Silver Bullet!" Somehow, Hitomi got caught up in the excitement too, throwing her hands up with just about everyone else in the front row and clapping. It was hard not to be excited, what with her sensei coming out to greet a huge crowd like this. Honorable and hardworking players like Felix were what made the game so great for the spectators and so engaging for players trying to get stronger. Self made legends deserved all the praise they could handle, so Hitomi clapped right along with the others. She clapped until her palms hurt.

Closer. Closer. And closer. Even if no one had been pointing it out, within another minute or two, the thing would be impossible to miss. Measuring over six hundred meters long, and just over two hundred wide, it was the largest thing in the sky inside the city limits. Given what Hitomi's father had just finished explaining to her, it was no wonder the people that were closely involved with the presentation were either trying their best to ignore the incoming vessel and focus on their work, or were grinning knowingly at the people around them. Hitomi decided to do like her father suggested and get as close to the front as she could. With how busy the man was, that was probably the most time they would be spending together in person in the foreseeable future. "To the front! ..." Easier said than done. Some people realized that the presentation was about to start, and were already starting to gather in front of the stage. All Hitomi could do was try to slip through as much as possible and hope her height wouldn't ultimately ruin things. "10:29," Matsuo noted from just out of view of the main stage. Since he was the main presenter--by his own insistence--Matsuo had to make sure the timing on everything was good. "Three hundred and four years since the League was founded and we still can't get everything perfect." They had already had a couple of delays, but now they were just about ready. The folks at Scipio seemed almost relieved when they first caught wind of the delay, but in the end they still had to send the ship over. Matsuo turned to check on Felix. The Frame Ops legend would be serving as a guest speaker. His former teammate had every intention of making things as easy for him as possible. "I'm about to start things off. Just wait for the signal and then come on out and get them primed for the introduction video." After that, the stage would be Matsuo's again, and Felix could go relax. Matsuo couldn't help but imagine the man trying to sneak off to grab a snack or something in the food court and being ambushed by old and new fans alike. "If Hitomi manages to find a good spot, I'm going to yank her out of the crowd for a moment," he warned Felix, "I know she doesn't do well with crowds, but since I can't officially endorse Odyssey, I can at least give some ... unofficial support." He sighed as his overlay reached 10:30. "It's the least I can do, being gone all the time. Alright, Strays, begin operation~" Hitomi managed to get herself so worked into the crowd converging on the stage, she couldn't even tell where she was, anymore. The rattled teen felt like she wouldn't know how close she was to the front until she actually reached the edge of the crowd. Reaching the edge, and fresh air, steadily became her objective. She figured the chance to see her father in person wasn't worth passing up just because he might point her out in the crowd. The man's hint was such a giant tell, who could have possibly missed it? If some mild embarrassment was coming, so be it, as long as she could at least talk to him after he was done hamming things up. Hitomi's thoughts began to race as she saw lights that weren't coming from overhead or from people's gadgets and clothing. She tried to force her way through and wound up nearly crashing into the rails that were holding the audience at a comfortable distance from the stage. "Sorry," Hitomi yelped as she caught herself. She looked up and saw some portable screens positioned above the stage. There were three of them, one in the center, and two more to either side. Scanning the area, there were other screens being floated into position around the plaza. The main thought sticking out in Hitomi's head now was her father's little hint during their brief chat. Cameras everywhere, the event being streamed all over the place ... if he really went through with doing an old fashioned shout out to her, Hitomi wasn't sure if she would be able to handle it. At least when she was in a match, the audience had something interesting to watch. Not just her standing around, trying not to lose it. The lights all around the plaza began to dim, and the AV system gave the convention's stage the kind of lighting job that would make it the second most interesting thing to look at, right after that battlecruiser quietly creeping toward them. At this point, the ship was so close, its hull beginning to be fully illuminated by the city lights. Despite its sheer size, the ambient noise of Providence and the convention goers was enough to disguise what little noise was reaching them from the ship. Hitomi's eyes were brought back to the stage when all of the portable screens, even those placed far from the stage, threw up some version of the battlenet logo. After a few seconds, it faded into a message that said, 'Welcome to Batcon 2405.' "R-r-r-gh I'm not ready, yet," Hitomi decided, starting to tremble slightly. It was going to be embarrassing enough with her father being the main presenter, but having to make another recruitment attempt afterward? Actually ... "Recruiting ... why didn't I think of this, before?!" Hitomi waved an apology to the startled man standing beside her, then she turned her attention toward the stage. "If Dad introduces me, Linus and I could ... yeah~ That just might work." Calling Linus, that's what Hitomi decided to do. Best to tell him about Plan H--which was essentially Plan B involving no obnoxious publicity stunts--so he had time to prepare for it. If people weren't too curious about Team Odyssey's shaky situation, then they would might just have their pick of dozens upon dozens of players.