Hokkaido- Asarigawa Hot Springs

---

Returning to her home country after the grueling, body breaking battle in Rio had turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant one. Made only more pleasant by the fact that, for one rare instance in her life, she had actual money of her own. Great quantities of currency with relatively little human blood on them. The majority deposited in an account Jonas had insisted she set up, instead of carrying around the money with her. Leaving her with a simple plastic card and a thick handful of bills she insisted on keeping.

As soon as they set foot on the soil of Japan, Brown had limped her way to the nearest convenience store to spend her hard earned money for the first time. Buying enough packaged melon bread to fill the entire back seating area of Jonas's jeep, to the point the seats themselves could not be seen.

Sinking into the pile of delicious bread, Brown simply sat back, relaxed, and ate as they road along. Loaf after succulent loaf of melon bread disappeared past her lips as the soft air of her homeland swept past her face. Though her body still ached and popped from the sheer strain she had put it through, Brown was almost entirely at peace.

It felt too much like a dream, traveling without walking alongside people that she had come to consider her friends. Part of Brown became frightened, unwilling to close her eyes even for even the briefest of moments for fear of waking up.

When the jeep finally came to a stop Brown remained firmly seated, willfully ignoring Jonas’s insistence she clean up the sea of wrappers that had collected in the wake of her melon bread genocide. Pressing the last survivors of her treat massacre down her gullet Brown dusted off her hands and climbed out of the jeep, trailing stray melon bread wrappers behind her as she moved.

The announcement reached her ears quickly and she turned to Jonas and Otsuna.

“Why did we come all the way out here to the hot springs and we going to some stupid debriefing? I like hot springs, but robots don’t use hot springs, and I thought we came here to kill more robots.” Brown asked as she approached the two, annoyance and impatience creeping into every word she directed at them.

“MAVERICK is just going to get in the way, along with all the other Nomads. If they know where the robots are let’s just find out and leave so we can kill the robots before anyone else can!”

Brown slammed her knuckles into one another, immediately wincing as last remaining remnants of her injuries crept up on her.

---

Tokyo- Stadium

---

It had been some time since she left the forest.

Part of Matsu still couldn't believe how much Japan had changed since she was a child. In her youth she had spend decades trekking across the mountains and hills of Japan, so much that at one point she was sure she swore she could never become lost.

Yet walking the rain laden streets of Tokyo the kitsune women found that notion challenged. As she struggled to connect where she had been so many years prior to where she stood.

Open fields of the deepest emerald green grass and villages of thatched roofed homes had been replaced with a twisting maze of asphalt, steel, and neon lights. A transformation so extreme that it was as wondrous as it was frightening.

Many Yokai were torn on the matter, utterly despising how Japan had changed and continued to change. Matsu found herself torn on the matter. The modern cities she was familiar with had their own cold beauty to them, with buildings that towered into the heavens in a chillingly casual fashion all the while complex systems snaked beneath the stone where they walked.

Compared to what Tokyo had been like before, it was a stunning sight.

Yet, Matsu missed the quiet tranquility and carefully garnered beauty that had seemed so much more prevalent before. It pained her to see less and less of the land she was familiar with, and more and more ugly foreign buildings

"If Japan is a garden, it certainly feels like I'm being forced to watch my favorite flowers ripped from the bed to make room for ugly vegetables..." Matsu sighed, captured in the brief melancholy of her thoughts before shaking her head. Rain was thrown from her golden hair and golden furred ears atop her head.

Normally a fox-eared women walking the streets of Tokyo would attract the eyes of every passerby. However to those around her she looked like a normal women, albeit with blond hair and drabber robes.

"That is one thing that hasn't changed." Matsu said comfortingly to herself. "Even if my ancestors and blood bemoan the changes going on, humans have ultimately stayed the same. They're as easy to trick and upset as ever. Well--most of them are anyway."

Matsu's thoughts began to drift. A smile crossed her face as the warm memory of a brown haired girl coiling around the trunk, and her deep insistence that the tree was the fox women in disguise, flooded back to her.

Before she could properly lose herself in the memory however something reached her ears.

Matsu stopped cold in the middle of the sidewalk, her ears flicking up as she was bombarded by noise. Even as rain fell hard around her and the flow of traffic and sidewalk travelers drifted past, the sound of of thousands of heavy feet thundering across the ground was rendered clear in her senses.

Among the movement there was the distant shattering of stone, the rending of steel, and-

The death cries of countless people.

In an instant Matsu kicked off the ground and threw herself onto the side of the nearest building. With a swish of her twin tails the wind beneath her blew upwards, boosting her momentum and carrying her up the entire length of the building until she reached the rooftop. Standing on the edge, high above the streets with rain and wind pelting her face, Matsu looked out across Tokyo with golden eyes.

In the distance she could see smoke, dust, and pulsating lines of things funneling into the stadium like living rivers of murderous stone.

Throwing herself forward Matsu began to jump, bouncing from rooftop to rooftop, clearing the expanses between the increasingly taller buildings until she was perched on a office building just across from the stadium.

As soon as she saw the thundering, moving things moving below the Kitsune felt her heart stop for a moment.

"Those horns-! Are they Oni? No, they can't be. They're all supposed to be-"

Matsu stopped, her ears tilting upwards once again as a new, subtler noise reached her. Up above, moving through the rain and the wind, something approached the stadium...

"I can't waste anymore time." Matsu cursed under her breath and swished her tails, kicking off the edge of the roof and riding the wind to the top of the stadium. Where she looked down and tried to make out what was going on in the interior...

---

In the 23rd century, the Earth became overpopulated and vital resources grew scarcer by the day. The nations of the world, in a desperate grab for stability, went to war with one another in an attempt to unify the planet under a single banner. Horrible weapons of mass destruction were used and countless lives were erased in a days long conflict.

When the dust cleared the terrible scars and damage done to the planet became apparent even at a cursory glance. The war nearly continued until experts came to a terrible realization-

The Earth was dying.

The environment and ecosystem necessary for sustaining human life, if not all life, was in a rapid state of decay. It was estimated that in just two short decades the Earth would become completely uninhabitable.

Face to face with possible extinction the surviving superpowers of the world declared a truce and began pooling their resources to search for a solution.

They founded “Umhlaba” an organization dedicated to making the colonization of space and the continued survival of the human race a reality.

Quickly ruling out building space colonies at Lagrange points due to the sustainability issues involved, Umhlaba focused its research towards terraforming and colonizing the nearby planets, Mars, Venus, and the moon.

The moon was the closest celestial body, Mars was seen as the easiest to possibly colonize, and Venus while toxic was nearly the same size as Earth and possessed an abundance of natural resources.

Making great scientific and technological strides Umhlaba eventually discovered the means necessary to terraform the planets. However their resources more limited than they had hoped as the surviving nations began to bicker with one another.

Time grew short and they were forced to make a choice, attempt to terraform all three planets with a limited chance of success or focus on one to guarantee success.

They chose to focus on terraforming Mars, building living habitats beneath the moon’s surface and in Venus’s upper atmosphere with their additional materials.

Umhlaba had only just finished with their efforts when the world fell into chaos. The remaining nations collapsed and anarchy swept across what remained of the civilized world.

Armies transformed into roving packs of marauders and law disintegrated in a matter of hours. With no word from their backers and all their emergency plans failing, it looked like their efforts would be for nought.

However the leader of Umhlaba, Alfred G. Zern, took responsibility into his own hands and pressed to load the transport ships they had ready with as many people as possible even if it meant grabbing strangers off the chaotic streets.

Risking life and limb Alfred and Umhlaba’s personnel prepared the ships, ushering countless civilians onboard as their security personnel battled with the criminals and bandits who intended to take the ships for themselves.

Once they were fully loaded they launched without delay, blasting off as fighting raged on around them and escaping to the skies.

Every ship escaped without any significant damage thanks to the sacrifice of many allowing the survivors to begin their journey to Mars.

It was a long six month trip to the red planet but they made it and once they landed they were greeted to the fresh air of the newly terraformed Martian skies.

When it came time to establish a government the people were indecisive. Everyone was so disillusioned and embittered at the failure of their ‘modern’ governments that they desired a return to something older, more noble.

Since all the high ranking men of killing and supposedly important world leaders had all been left behind on Earth, the people chose Alfred as their new leader.

On top of Olympus Mons a ceremony was held and Alfred “The Great” Zern was crowned the first Emperor of Mars.

It was a grand day and it filled the beleaguered survivors with a newfound sense of hope for the future. However unpleasant news arrived and the newly crowned king was forced to make a decision.

Not everyone could live on Mars. While fully terraformed the planet’s ecosystem was incredibly fragile and with the burgeoning amount of survivors they had grabbed, they risked harming their new world.

People needed to be ferried away to the habitats on Luna and Venus both due to reduce the population on Mars and to provide important resources.

Many were upset at the news, but the newly crowned King calmed everyone.

This event later became known as the “Great Exodus” that decided who were the Martians, who were the Lunites, and who were the Venusians.

Those sent to the Moon, or “Luna” as it became known, became farmers working in cylindrical habitats beneath the surface with proper gravity and a pseudo Earth like environment with false skies and proper light reflected below the ground.

Meanwhile those sent to Venus lived on floating habitats in the upper atmosphere. Air was a lifting gas on Venu and the atmosphere had a proper rotation, giving them a day and night cycle similar to what they had on Earth. Drawing gases from outside they made oxygen, carbon building materials, and processed deuterium, which provided a vital source of power.

Once people became established regular trading and shipments between the colonies became normal those living on Mars soon found themselves with an abundance of food and resources. They prospered and over time began to forget...

Nearly five centuries have passed since then. It is currently the year 499 of the Revolutionary Calendar.

The Kingdom of Zern has become the Zern Empire, with Luna and Venus considered it’s protected territories.

Over the past five centuries technology has both regressed and progressed in a variety of areas. Computer technology and robotics are light years ahead of what they once were while the technology to create weapons of mass destruction has been intentionally lost to time.

Clean power is produced by exotic particle reactors utilizing deuterium, generating immense amounts of clean energy with the side effect of spreading disruptive particles that make wireless communications and many sensors almost useless.

Once peaceful without a standing army beyond a guard force, the Empire of Mars now has a great standing military with entire fleets of space combat vessels, armed soldiers, and as of the last ten years humanoid weapons known as “Mobile Suits”.

Initially made to deal with the rampant space piracy that had developed, they are now used to keep order on Luna and especially Venus, where rebellious sympathies have developed out of a desire for independence.

Our story is set on and around Venus where the willing soldiers of the Empire attempt to keep the peace while brave civilians join the rebellion in the hopes of winning a better life...

---

Too Long Didn't Read Version

What is Gundam?

And a bunch of cute shows with kids playing with models, but that's besides the point.

What is this roleplay?

---

Unit Type: (State the Generation and specification, 1st Generation Prototype, etc)
Production: (Mass Production? Limited Production? Unique?)
Operator: (What person or organization uses this machine?)
Unit Appearance: (Describe the appearance of the unit in as much detail as possible, especially if the unit is an original model and not based off anything seen in the show. The use of pictures is strictly prohibited unless you made or edited the picture yourself. Even with a picture a well written description is required.)
Accommodation: (What kind of cockpit does the unit have, where is it located, and how many pilots or passengers can it hold? Mobile suit cockpits are typically located in the upper torso just under the head and can only hold one occupant properly. However this isn’t a requirement, merely the norm and exceptions like tandem cockpits can exist.)
Dimensions: (The proportion of your unit in meters. Only height is required for mobile suits but Mobile Workers or Mobile Armors will need to have height, length, and width since they rarely adhere to humanoid proportions.)
Powerplant: (Mobile suits and mobile armors rely on exotic particle reactors utilizing Deuterium for power.)
Equipment and Design Features: (Go into detail and describe the various systems and devices that are apart of your unit. Things like sensors, thrusters, built in tools, sub-arms, armor density, and other non-weapon systems would be mentioned and explained here.)
Handheld Armaments: (The hand carried weapons and equipment available to your unit. List out and describe each in as much detail as possible. )
Fixed Armaments: (Built in or physically fixed weapons. While more common on mobile workers and armors they do appear on mobile suits. This includes things like claws, spiked shoulders, or other such things.)
Strengths and Weaknesses: (Here is where you’ll describe the strengths and weaknesses of your unit for the sake of ensuring the focus and intent of your machine is understood. Now I know people like to make balanced units, jack of all trade machines with strengths in everything and with as few weaknesses as possible, but I’d like to encourage players to make flawed and diverse machines. Don’t be afraid to make your unit perform poorly in certain areas or struggle with certain things, they will give your suit character and make their strengths more believable.)
Technical History: (This is basically the backstory of your unit where you describe how it came to be, how it was used, what it’s done, how it performed, and where it is now. How the technical history of a unit is handled depends on the type, with mass production units history having to cover the entire line of machines while customized or unique units being able to focus on single suits.)

---

Long, long ago the world became so filled with people that it threatened to break beneath the weight of their strain. With each passing day the ground grew barer, the air became choked with filth, and the skies grew grey with sickness.



Most remained blind to it, but a wise few knew it was coming and prepared for it. A great White Ship was built and a chosen few were taken aboard it, setting sail to a place where they could survive even The End. The Nowhere Islands.

Unlike other islands, which sat as mere specks amidst a vast sea, the Nowhere Islands were special. They rested atop the body of a massive and powerful creature, the Black Dragon. A creature so powerful it was capable of shielding the islands from disaster, any disaster, perpetually. By the time the White Ship arrived at the island the Dark Dragon had long since been put to sleep using seven needles.

Upon arriving the people sank the White Ship and used a relic called the Hummingbird Egg to seal away their memories of the old world, selecting one amongst them to keep the secret. Left with blissful ignorance the people from the White Ship began new lives on the Nowhere Islands as The End consumed the rest of the world. Years passed and it seemed like their happiness would never end--

Until it did.

A chubby boy arrived on the islands from another place, another time, bringing with him misshapen minions and machinery. The chubby boy saw the island and its happy, ignorant inhabitants as his new personal toy box and set about changing the island to suit his desires. Slowly he twisted and corrupted everything, from the way to the people lived, to the animals, to the very land itself. But he quickly grew bored and crafted a new ‘toy’ for himself...



A twisting of man and machine. Someone--something capable of pulling the Seven Needles, of awakening the Dark Dragon to do as the chubby boy wished. The only ones who dared oppose him were a young kind-hearted boy, a limping thief, a princess of an abandoned castle, and a dog.

Each side raced to pull the most needles, for the nature of the Dark Dragon would reflect the heart of the one who pulled the most needles. A person with a good heart would lead to the Dark Dragon being good while a person with a wicked heart would lead to the Dark Dragon being evil.

But the Masked Man had no heart. And thus if he pulled all the needles the Dark Dragon would crave only oblivion for everything.

By the time the seventh needle was reached each side had pulled three needles and a battle commenced for the last one. The chubby boy was sealed away while the kind-hearted boy and his allies clashed with the Masked Man and after a grueling battle the Masked Man was struck down and the last needle was pulled--

The entire planet seemed to convulse in pain. Mountain tops exploded into spewing fountains of fire, burning stones fell in showers from the sky, howling tornadoes rent the land, while the very ground itself began to crack and split open.

The Dark Dragon awakened and the Nowhere Islands were destroyed...

And at the same time, the rest of the world was revived.

Those who survived the destruction of the Island scattered and resettled the world.

---

Countless years have passed since then and the world has long since forgotten the story of the Nowhere Islands, allowing it to fall into mere legend. A new modern society has grown from the ashes of destruction and rebirth. People go about their new, comfortable lives thinking little of the past, focusing only on the present, and seeing only the best in the future.

In recent years however many things have begun to happen that have made living a simple, happy life quite difficult.

A women with seemingly prophetic abilities has begun exerting influence across the world, gaining fans and loyal followers from her seemingly perfect predictions of the future...

Children find their school teachers being replaced with plastic faced substitutes and forced to go on frequent field trips to a 'zoo' where the most disobedient among them go missing.

A new miracle drug simply called the "Purple Pill" is advertised everywhere and said to be good for everything from headaches, to bodily pain, to sadness and hunger. Most end up taking the pill weather they want to or not. Most adults have become less lucid and unquestioning towards the strange changes around them. Others experience strange fevers or feel no effect what so ever.

Robots have begun to show up in towns, helpfully donated to 'keep the peace' and ensure everyone is where they're supposed to be. And following them were rumors abound of the hideous, twisted animals that have begun to appear on the edges of towns and in the woods at night.

The world is changing and rushing towards something. Can you change what is about to come? Or is the future unassailable in its inevitability?

---

---

What is Mother/Earthbound?

Mother, known as “Earthbound” in the US, was a Japanese JRPG originally developed for the NES with its sequels being produced for the SNES and GameBoy Advanced.

The plot of the three games more or less follow a young boy with recently awakened psychic powers as they travel through a modern-esque world to stop a terrible plot threatening themselves and the entire world.

The games were unique at the time for using a mix of modern setting and modern fictional elements. Opposed to the traditional magical fantasy JRPG staples the game had pizza delivery, small suburban towns, bustling cities, psychic powers, aliens, robot, genetic chimeras, and convenience stores.

While featuring colorful characters and being fairly light in tone, the games delved into darker themes and tragedy with plenty of surreal and upsetting moments mixed in.

What is the Setting?:

This roleplay is set following the events of Mother 3 and incorporates elements mentioned in the previous two games. Note: Playing or even knowing any of the games in question is not a pre-requisite for participating int he roleplay as this plot is by and large original.

The story begins in the modern world, specifically in the country of "Starland". A place famous for its freedom of travel and its people love of hamburgers.

For the longest time Starland has been without troubles but over the past few years strange things have begun occurring and effecting the lives of those who live there and elsewhere in the world.

People go missing with disturbing frequency, terrifying creatures appear on the streets at night, businesses are bought and taken over enmasse, schools become more oppressive, laws become stricter, and the general populace becomes less lucid and more easily controls. All while young children and certain individuals begin developing psychic powers.

Player characters are individuals effected or outright produced by the machinations going on in the world. They inevitably become wrapped up in a plot that involves the future of the world itself.

Those who wish to join the roleplay are encouraged to make creative characters marked by darker elements or burdened by tragedy.

I would ask most characters be on the younger side or non-human (animals, robots, etc) to keep in line with the general themes of the game. A few adult characters will of course be permitted.

My intent with this RP is to produce an adventurous roleplay balancing fun and absurdity with very dark underlying themes and plot elements.

---

“TEN MINUTES FOR LUNCH. REPEAT. TEN MINUTES FOR LUNCH!”

The blare of the speakers across the mineral processing plant signaled a glorified stampede through the looming, sprawling interior of the massive industrial plant. Tools were dropped, work was discarded, and every man, woman, and child wearing an orange jumpsuit sprinted forward as if they had just joined a marathon.

Warm bodies poured into the small, poorly lit cafeteria like water through the break in a pressure seal. Within seconds everyone was shoulder to shoulder with one another as they surged towards a wide metal machine that stretched most of the length of the wall. Laden with sensors, spouts, and tubes, worker after worker thrust their IDs forward along with dented metal bowls.

An electronic ‘beep’ began to chime up and down the length of the machine as mounds of yellow, semi-gelatinous rice shot down the tubes and fired into their bowls.

Like clockwork each worker would approach the machine and a ‘beep’ and ‘slorp!’ would sound out.

However when a yellow eyed girl approached the machine, another sound rang out.

CLANG!

Laika bent her arm back before smashing her below into the side of the tube. The blow wasn’t hard enough to visibly damage the sturdy plasteel tube, but the vibrations were enough to delay its deposit of rice. With a shaking, hissing noise Laika stared down with anticipation as an extra large clump of fried rice was deposited in her bowl.

“What the hell!?” One worker cried out in surprise, turning heads across the crowded room as Laika sprinted for the nearest table.

Crashing down into her seat Laika stuck her spoon into the rice, which had already begun to conform to the shape of her bowl, and began to shovel spoonful after spoonful into her mouth.

“You know if management found out about what you did, they’d dock your pay.” A young man with greasy, sharp black hair said as he sat down beside Laika.

“How will they find out? Everyone is going to try what I did after they saw how much rice I got. No one is going to want to say anything, Sipnik.”

Laika spoke with a mouth full of rice and Sipnik simply shook his head in exasperation.

“They’ll find someone to blame if the food machine gets beaten into scrap metal by people trying to get a few more grains of rice.”

The older boy tried to deepen his tone to get across the severity of things, but stopped himself as he sat the content look on Laika’s face as she continued to dig through her rice bowl.

“Its chicken fried rice though, that makes it way better than regular rice, so it's worth it!”

Laika once again spoke with her mouth filled with food, her cheeks bulging with half-chewed rice as she continued to shovel more into her mouth.

Sipnik began to open his mouth to speak when a soft ‘crack’ from across the table interrupted him.

The yellow eyed girl and greasy haired boy sat and stared as a shorter boy with acne scars across his face deposited a thick yellow goop into his rice bowl.

Laika swallowed hard.

“What’s that, Venel?” Laika asked and the smaller boy just grinned.

“Its an egg.”

The two sat and watched in amazement as the smaller boy mixed the goop into his rice, turning it into a wet, soupy consistency devoid of the typical dryness.

“But, I thought eggs were a powder?” Laika asked.

“Not when they’re fresh.” Venel said as Sipnik stared intently at the boy’s bowl.

“Where did you get a fresh egg?”

Sipnik spoke in a hushed tone, glancing around as Venel simply grinned.

“That’s a secret. And I didn’t even have to pay for it.”

Laika’s eyes went wide, but she realized that Venel didn’t seem like a particularly capable thief.

“Wait. Do you own a chicken?”

“There aren’t any chickens on Venus.” Sipnik said dismissively. “Besides, are chicken eggs blue?”

“Uh, maybe? Whatever I has makes eggs, and that’s all that matters.” Venel finally began to dig into his rice, his face brightening as the eggy rice reached his tongue.

“There has to be chickens on Venus. I mean we’re eating ‘chicken’ fried rice. That means it has to have chicken meat and veggies in it, doesn’t it?”

“Laika, I don’t think we’ve ever eaten real meat. And for all we know this is just regular rice dyed yellow.”

The yellow eyed girl stopped mid-bite, spoon raised to her mouth.

“Then what’s in it?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers too, Laika.”

Sharp feedback from the speakers overhead made everyone in the cafeteria wince, some covering their ears.

“LAIKA V. , SIPNIK W. and VENEL V, REPORT TO THE MOBILE WORKER HANGER IMMEDIATELY FOR AN EMERGENCY WORK ORDER!”

All three groaned as everyone else in the room breathed a sigh of relief.

“For fucksake, it hasn’t even been five minutes much less ten!” Sipnik said, pushing away his barely touched bowl of rice as Laika raced to shovel the rest of her bowl down her throat.

Chowing down as much as she could, Laika left with the two boys and the three of them were soon in the hanger.

The hanger was a large, dark room that reeked of oil and the familiar smell of iron. Rows of Scutsons sat against the wall as people who made far more money then they three of them moved along catwalks overhead.

“Alright, listen up!” A voice boomed overhead and Laika looked up to see one of the shade wearing managers looming above them.

“We’ve had a pressure drop in the primary collection tube for the factory. If it remains like it is we’ll be working at half efficiency all day, and the boss isn’t having any of that. Fix the tube in five minutes and you’ll be given a bonus. Now move it!”

The manager walked off and Laika wasted no time in moving for the nearest Scutson.

Opening the back cockpit she climbed inside, dropped into the seat and buckled in. Her fingers moved across the console dashboard reflexively thumbing switches to close the cockpit and begin starting up the reactor. On the outside of the suit the mono-eye of the Scutson flashed to life, swerving long its track as the dark curved screen in front of Laika lit up shoving her the hanger.

“Five minutes?” Sipnik said as comms were established.

“They probably want us to fix the primary gas and mineral intake for the factory before everyone gets done with lunch and back to work.” Laika stated simply as she checked the status of the Hazard Gear fitted to her Scutson.

“For fucksake, that’s crazy! That’s a half an hour job at the least.”

“Did you hear though, it's a bonus! Come on, follow me, I know exactly what’s wrong with it!” Venel’s excited voice chimed over the comm channel as his Scutson lumbered forward and all but ran towards the hanger door.

Laika fell in behind him, maneuvering her Scutson towards the airlock as Sipnik followed suit.

The three only had to wait a few moments as the airlock ran through its cycle. With a sharp hiss the doors to the outside shot open and the three were able to walk their Scutsons forward.

The habitats of Venus were massive angular domes fitted atop equally massive hexagonal nanocarbon plates. Layed with plasteel each habitat floated in the upper atmosphere well above the more dangerous concentrations of corrosive substances below. Oxygen was a lifting gas on the planet, which is what allowed their homes to exist in the first place.

Hex 34 was just one of many habitats on Venu. Each was connected to one another via flexible lines that contained both rails and communications, bringing people, goods, and messages to each habitat. Laika had been told that the habitats formed a vague hex pattern across the upper atmosphere of the planet, but she had only seen minor proof of that years prior.

Walking across the dark outer hull of “Hex 34”, Laika stopped and looked straight up towards the sky. She had to bend her Scutson backwards to achieve the angle due to its immobile frontal head.

Directly above Laika could see the black void of space, tintly only slightly orange with the color of Venus’a deadly atmosphere. From the surface all you could see was the tangerine smog and from the habitats all you could see was darkness, occasionally dotted with twinkling distant stars.

Laika had forgotten how late it was, though had remembered that the sky was usually a poor mirror of the time of day. She had been told once the habitats had a similar rotation to that of Earth, giving them 24 hour days without needing to do anything to the planet itself. However, it was often difficult to tell the time just by looking, both above and below.

Approaching the very edge of the Hex 34’s plate, Laika looked down to see the orange planet, marked by swirls of vivid yellow and white. Even at ‘night’ the planet always seemed to have a neon glow to it...

“Come on Laika, jump already, lets hustle!” Venel said, his Scutson moving up beside her.

“Uh, right, sorry!”

Gripping the controls Laika angled the small ‘arms’ fitted to the back of the Scutson backwards. The grappling hooks at the end of the arms fanned open and fired, grabbing onto empty metal loops near the edge. Venel and Sipnik fired their who grappling hooks and, in near uniform motion, the three had their Scustons step off the side of the habitat.

As they dropped the grappling units began to reel out wire, repelling them downwards until they could see underneath the habitat’s plate.

Once the three could see the underside, they each detached one of their grapplings, reeled it in, and fired it at one of the various metal loops present on the underside of the habitat.

The three Scutsons began to swing, going from loop to loop.

Venel and Sipnik had to use their thrusters to help with their forward movement and controlling their speed, but Laika was able to swing simply through good use and conservation of her momentum.

Soon the three mobile workers came to one of the many thick flexible tubes that hung from the underbelly of the habitat, stretching for countless meters all the way into the thick corrosive soup of the Venusian atmosphere below.

“Alright Venel, why do you think you can fix this?” Sipnik eventually asked as they began to lower themselves down the length of the tube.

“Don’t sound so accusatory. I heard the last people who fixed this had been out drinking, so they probably just screwed up setting up the pressure control modules near the base of this. We don’t have to go down miles or anything like that. Besides, if they didn’t know the problem was so close then why would they offer a bonus?”

“To incentivise us to kill ourselves so they don’t lose a few pounds?” Sipnik spat back, but Laika was already focused on the task.

“There are two modules pretty close together this high up. Me and Venel will change those. Sipnik, why don’t you check the seals near the top of the tube?”

“Fine by me.” Sipnik said, his Scutson suddenly stopping its descent before darting upwards.

Laika continued to repel towards, Venel speeding ahead of her as they both arrived at large, burgeoning squares protruding from the tube.

Grabbing the tube for support, Laika maneuvered here way over to the box, prying it open and revealing its computerized insides. Reaching out with the Scuton’s hand, the tip of it’s finger snapped open, smaller more precise arms folded outwards. Silence full over the three as they became lost in their work.

Just as Laika finished re-installing the pressure module, Sipnik’s voice rang over the comm line.

“We’re running out of time Venel, do you have it fixed or not?” He demanded.

Laika looked to see Venel’s Scutson still fidgeting with the pressure control module.

“I’m almost done. Besides, it's not like they’re gonna turn the pressure back on while we work on this.”

As Venel laughed Laika suddenly froze in her cockpit.

A sudden sense of overwhelming fear filled her mind as a sharp, electric tingling sensation raced down her spin. In her mind a murky grey image appeared for a brief instant...

Without thinking Laika threw out the Scuston’s legs, kicking the tube as hard as she could while firing the Scutson’s thrusters and reeling in her grappling hooks.

Her Scutson swung around the tube, away from Venel as she raced upwards.

“Laika, what the hell are you--!”

Venel’s words were drowned out as a brilliant flash filled Laika’s screen followed by the sound of micro debris striking the hull of her Scuston.

The explosive shockwave hit Laika’s suit and she was thrown backwards as her vision was clouded.

“VENEL!” Laika heard Sipnik cry and as the debris cleared, she could see why.

Venel was falling.

His Scutson rapidly grew smaller and smaller, spinning wildly out of control as he dropped downwards towards the clouds of corrosive miles and miles below.

“Eject, Venel, eject!” Laika shouted, her heart began to pound in her chest.

“No! No! I can save this, I can save this!”

Gritting her teeth Laika took one look up at Venel, the mono-eye of her Scutson swerving to see the boy and his own Scuston looking down from above.

Motionless.

Without a second thought Laika slammed on the controls.

In an instant she was falling, grappling cables flailing behind her as they disconnected and began reeling themselves in.

Digging her fleet into the floor pedals Laika fired all of the Scuston’s thrusters at once, shooting downwards after Venel.

Laika was pressed back into her seat, her entire mobile worker shaking from the violent forces that assaulted its body.

The habitat above her began to grow distant as Venel’s mobile worker grew closer.

However the distance between them was still significant and the menacing clouds of Venus grew only larger and brighter as they fell.

Swinging one of her grappling arms over her Scutson’s shoulders, Laika took aim and fired.

The grappling spike shot downwards, remaining closed as it slammed through the side of Venel’s Scutson.

Reeling in the line, feeling her speed picking up, Laika was finally within arms reach of the other Scutson.

“Forced ejectionForced ejectionForced ejectionForced ejectionForced ejection…”

Laika’s mind raced as her eyes darted across the hull of Venel’s Scuston, eventually stopping at the spot directly atop the mobile workers protruding head.

Pulling her Scuston’s arm back Laika heaved the first forward with all the strength she could force out of the servomotors. The spot above the head crumbled inwards, electrical arcs jumping from beneath the plasteel paneling as explosive bolts in the back of the Scutson fired.

A slim, rounded off cockpit shot out, bags inflating around it and quickly carrying it upwards.

Seeing Venel float away Laika kicked off the other Scuston and fired all of her thrusters at max power.

Once again she was crushed downwards into her seat as she fought against gravity and her own downwards momentum. In the rear sensor projection she could see Venel’s abandoned Scutson spiral away, turning into a dot that was lost in the avarice orange atmosphere of the planet below.

Warning alarms began to blare, screaming out notifications on heat build up, potential engine damage, and possible burn out.

Yet Laika continued to push her thrusters as far as they could go, the Habitat growing closer and closer…

Then she heard it.

The Scutson’s thrusters began to sputter and die, the reaping hands of gravity pulling on Laika, eager to have her…

“Come on, be close enough!”

Gritting her teeth Laika fired her grappling cables, watching them arc upwards towards one of the empty rungs high, high above.

Her heart began to sink as she began to fall, dread and brief panic washing over her…

Until she was jerked forward, her Scuston bouncing as one of its grappling lines pulled taut.

Holding the sides of her cockpit, Laika was left staring downwards at Venus, her mobile worker swinging by a wire thin ‘thread’.

Slowly her heart rate fell and Laika collapsed backwards into her seat, letting out a heavy sigh of relief.

“Everything...everything is going to be alright now.” She told herself.

---

“You’re fired.”

The spectacled, velvet suited man behind the desk barely looked up from his papers as Laika looked back at him in shock.

“What?” She demanded and the man flicked his eyes up to her.

“Don’t sound so surprised. Do you really think you would keep your job after that little stunt?”

Laika glared at the owner of the factory and rose out of her seat as he sneered at her.

“I was trying to save someone’s life!”

“Your job isn’t to save people’s lives” The factory owned waved his hand in dismissal “Its to do the work that I tell you to do. Besides worker Venel didn’t need saving.”

“Yes he did! There was no way he could have pulled his Scutson out of that spin and I knew you had all of the Scutson’s ejection systems disabled. That’s the only reason I was even able to force ejection to begin with.”

The factory owner sat up straight in his chair, his face turning red with anger.

“I disabled the ejection feature because I don’t want my profit margins cut to ribbons because of black-lunged little idiots with cold feet. This is dangerous work and you all accepted the terms and conditions of my employment. Now because of you I have to buy a replacement mobile worker AND deal with the damage to the factory’s collection line.”

Slamming his hands down on the table Laika watched as the fat, well dressed man jabbed a finger towards her face.

“Just be thankful I have a headache and don’t have the patience to involve the constabulary, or I would have done more than just fire you. Now get out of my office!”

Laika’s eyes went wide and her hands curled into fists, her fingernails cutting into her palms as she raised her arms. For a second the factory owner’s anger cooled into fear as he leaned back away from the almost snarling, yellow eyed girl.

However Laika held herself back, stepping away from his desk and stomping out of his office.

Walking through the filthy metal floored factory towards the entrance, Laika stopped as she spotted Venel sitting on a crate near a nanocarbon plate conveyor.

The entire left side of the boy’s face was a single dark bruise that had already swollen into a painful, grotesque bulge. His orange jumpsuit was stained thoroughly with his vomit that he had no doubt spat up in the dizzying drop towards Venus.

Grimacing Laika walked over and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Hey, Venel. Are you O--"

“Don’t talk to me, Dog-Girl.”

Venel brushed Laika’s hand off his shoulder, turning and glaring up at her with one eye nearly swollen shut.

“Thanks to you I have to pay the company for a new Scuston. Do you have any idea how long that will take? I have a sister to feed and for all I know she’s going to starve to death thanks to you!”

“I was just trying to help!”

“Well you didn’t help, Laika. You never help! All you ever do is make things worse for everyone else. Besides, you dodged out of the way before that explosion even happened. If you knew it was going to explode then why didn't you say something?”

“I just--”

"You're a freak, that's what you are! You want to really help everyone? Then take a flying leap off the habitat!

Venel jerked his head back and spat blood directly into Laika’s face.

She could only stare as the boy she had been friends with mere minutes prior turned her back to her and tried to get back to work.

Wiping the blood from her face Laika continued to walk towards the entrance when she spotted Sipnik cleaning the floors beneath a conveyor.

“Sip, I-’

Sipnik looked up, only to immediately look down again and quicken the pace of his cleaning.

“Don’t talk to me Laika. I don't want to lose my job…”

Once again all Laika could do was stare, a numbness replacing the intense anger she had felt before. Turning away she walked through the entrance and out into the streets.

The habitat was dark, its wide double lane streets remained throughly crowded as Laika stumbled down the sidewalk in a haze. Black nanocarbon apartment buildings and tenement housing loomed overhead, casting dark shadows broken only by yellow lights from windows and dying orange street lamps.

By the time Laika got to the capsule hotel she lived in, she felt like she was going to throw up.

She wanted to scream, to tear everything in her sight apart, but more than anything else she wanted to cry.

Yet the tears wouldn’t come, the feeling simply wouldn’t come to her face. So they sat in her belly, stewing inside of her until her body simply didn’t want to move.

“Today is going to be a bad day…” Laika muttered as she threw herself into her capsule, burying her face in her ratty pillow...

---

---

It had been almost two months since the Venue and the ships traveling with it left Mars. For sixty days Lycoris had continued to make excuses for herself and invent delays to avoid having to go and see her. However, mere hours from arriving at their destination, Lycoris could no longer invent anything else to procrastinate herself with.

“Today is going to be a good day, today is going to be a good day…”

Lycoris repeated the mantra to herself as she drifted through the halls of The Venue. Occasionally crimson uniformed soldiers would float by in the hall, stopping and staring intently at the short black horns pushing through skin of her forehead. Only the bright purple badge around her neck prevented them from stopping her.

Entering the gravity block of the ship and feeling the familiar pull of gravity tug her to the floor, Lycoris proceeded forward until she came to a door barred by two heavily armed guards.

Approaching the two heavy machine gun wielding soldiers, Lycoris held up her badge.

“Um, uh, I have permission to speak with the Princess. I’m here guest.”

Both soldiers looked at one another and then back to Lycoris. There was an awkward moment of silence before the two eventually stepped aside, the door in front of her sliding open with a pneumatic hiss.

As soon as the designer was through the threshold the door snapped closed behind her, so suddenly that it startled her.

Exhaling sharply and breathing through her nose, the bespectacled purple haired girl continued forward.

The bedroom she had entered was big enough to be most people’s apartments. A massive bed sat at one end of the room, with a canopy laden with silky veils that drape over the edges of the bed like nets. White marble covers almost every surface in the room, even the surface appeared stark white as chandeliers hung and illuminated the entire room.

Near the entrance to the room was a sitting area with plump regal couches centered around a marble coffee table and a fireplace of all things. Lycoris gave pause to whether or not the fireplace could be real, when she finally heard the music.



The dark, hard metal rock that poured out of the speakers in the ceiling seemed almost laughably out of place amongst the regal bedroom.

Lycoris looked around in concern until she saw a pink haired figure splayed out on the couch.

“Um, Princess?”

Instantly the head of pink hair shot up and spun around, green eyes wide and distressed as they stared across the room.

“Lycoris? Lycoris is that you?”

Fumbling around Princess Asallia nearly fell off the couch in her effort to turn off the music, finally killing the volume before the next verse could play and rising to her feet.

“I’m so sorry if I surprised you Princess, I sent you a letter saying I was coming…”

“Oh no, no. I knew you were coming I just forgot it would be this soon. I was just...relaxing with some music I enjoy.”

“You always did have a unique taste in music, Princess.”

Lycoris smiled warmly and the tension from Asallia’s face melted away as she laughed.

“Oh it's good to see you again Lycoris, how have you been faring?”

“Uh, that’s what I’m here about actually. Where is um…”

Lycoris looked around, a brief chill washed over her as she scanned the room with her eyes for signs of anyone else’s presence.

“Hmm?”

“Where is Sir, W-wyvern?”

“Oh.” Asallia said casually in realization.

“I find it best to assume that he’s always close by and listening, at least to some degree. My ‘knight’ only likes to appear when it pleases him. Tact and manners are by no means virtues of his.”

“I-I see…” Lycoris said nervously, but Asallia walked over and placed a dark gloved hand on her shoulder.

“You’re fine, Lycoris. He would never hurt you, I can promise you that.”

“P-Princess, I--” Lycoris felt blood rush to her face and her throat tighten. For several moments she could only stare, losing herself in Asallia’s eyes.

Shaking her head, pulled her gaze from the Princess long enough to reach down into her bag. Pulling out a letter, emblazoned with a distinct wax seal, Lycoris held it out to the Princess.

“I came here to ask you for help. I was given a letter by Lord Lazland, er-- late Lord Lazland requesting the governor to allow me to participate in the expo. However I’m worried he might not accept my letter for um…”

Lycoris felt a tight pain in her chest as she struggled to form the words. Asallia looked on, frowning as her pupil stammered and struggled before her.

“The governor may have power over certain specifics of the expo, but I have been tasked with running it. I’m sure we can work out some kind of agreement even if he doesn’t approve. What did you wish to show at the expo?”

“The Oliver.”

The words left Lycoris’s mouth faster than she had anticipated and immediately she could see the gloomy look that overtook the Princess.

“...I see."

Asallia turned and began to walk over to the nearby desk when the pain in Lycoris’s chest began too much to bear.

“Princess! I’m sorry!” Lycoris blurted out, practically shouting as her eyes became wet.

Asallia turned in surprise as Lycoris's composure melted away.

“I’m so sorry! I feel like such a hypocrite for coming to you like this. You wanted the expo to be something wonderful, to inspire people and make them happy. But it got turned into a showcase for the military. And now here I am, worming my way into things just for my own benefit-!”

Lycoris’s voice cracked and her eyes began to run with tears, her cheeks bright red as she fought back sobs.

Suddenly Lycoris felt something warm on her back and before she realized it Asallia had pulled her into a hug.

Neither the Princess nor the designer moved for a solid minute, before eventually the Princess pulled back.

“Lycoris, look at me.”

Swallowing hard and wiping her tears away with her sleeve, Lycoris forced herself to look up at the Princess.

“Peace cannot be achieved by assuming everyone will blindly defer to your own beliefs. Everyone has their own drive, their own philosophy for what makes life worth continuing. Almost everyone has some partial merit to their beliefs and for me to blindly sit, thinking mine are wholly superior, would be an utter failure on my part.”

The Princess's gaze grew hard as she spoke, fierce almost, but her tone remained gentle as she spoke at an even pace.

“Only through acceptance and clear understanding of each other without misconceptions can true peace be achieved. I understand exactly why you’ve taken the path you have Lycoris. You find worth, find meaning in your life by creating things. It just so happens that your skills lie in creating weapons of war…”

Lycoris watched as the Princess's face softened and reached up, running a hand through her hair.

“While I do not approve of our encourage the path you have taken...I don’t hold anything against you. This is your chance to wipe away the disgrace forced on you by misfortune and the impatience of others. And as your teacher, as your friend, I am overjoyed for you.”

“Princess, I-”

“Just please remember, Lycoris. We are responsible for what we bring into this world.” Princess Asallia added, her tone becoming briefly grave.

“Of course. That is why I haven’t given up on the Oliver. I’m not going to let my creation be forgotten or waste away.”

“Good. Now why don’t you look for something to do on-board and try to relax? We’ll be at Annona soon and we can deal with that unpleasant business then. Alright?”

“Yes, Princess Asallia. Thank you.”

“No, thank you my pupil. For reminding me why this is so important."

Hugging the Princess one last time, thankful for the privacy of her personal quarters, Lycoris turned and left.

As she drifted down the halls she couldn’t stop herself from smiling widely, her anxeities having melted away.

Yet at the back of her mind something began to bother her.

Why had she said ‘almost’ everyone?”

---

---

“I already told you, we have all our papers triple checked and we got clearance from your superiors to dock at Habitat 34! There’s no need for you to search us!”

The Kelly-Class Cargo ship “Pinata” had been stopped by Rosencrantz-Class ship “Bruiser”. Two Tommy MS armed with machine guns leisurely occupied the space in front of the cargo ship, within arms reach of the bridge, barring any forward movement.

“And I’m telling you that as members of the Zern Military we have been ordered to and are authorized to perform random searches on any ships we find suspicious.”

The Avocati leading the Bruiser’s MS team stated bluntly, sounding almost bored as he argued with the captain of the cargo ship.

“T-this is outrageous! I need to get these eighteen cargo containers of secured goods to Habitat 34 now. If I’m even a second late I won’t get paid!”

“Is any of your cargo pressurized?”

“N-no. What does-”

“Then open up your cargo containers and let us check them. If you’re really in that much of a rush then we’ll do you a favor and make things quick with our Tommys. Otherwise we’ll hold you here until a proper manned search team arrives.”

“...” The pilot of the cargo ship said nothing and the Avocati began to wait patiently for a response when a voice came over his comm channel.

“Uh, sir?”

Quickly the Avocati switched over to the other channel and grinned.

“Just be patient rookie. I know you’re new to this, but he’ll open up for us. Then we help ourselves to ‘samples’ of whatever he has and let him go on his way. Don’t worry about him launching a complaint. Weasley little merchants like this have--”

“N-Not that, sir. It's about the containers. There are nineteen cargo containers. Not eighteen.”

The Avocati paused and he felt his heart skip a beat. Adjusting the elevation of his Tommy he gazed out over the top of the cargo ship. His eyes darted between the containers before stopping and staring coldly into the extra container nestled on the far rear of the ship. In an instant the pilot pulled on his controls, his Tommy darting down and raising its 90mm Bullpup.

Inside the bridge of the cargo ship the captain recoiled backwards as a massive gunbarrel was pressed up directly against the bridge.

“Open Cargo Container 19 NOW.”

“W-what is this abo--Wait. No, you can’t be serious. I just misspoke, that’s all! There are 19 containers on the manifest I swear--”

“Rookie! Open up that Cargo Containers. Peel the damn thing open with your bayonet if you have to!”

“Y-yes sir!”

The other Tommy’s thrusters flared behind it as it swept through the blackness of space, flying along the length of the cargo ship until it had reached the far rear.

Raising its 90mm Bullpup, the rookie pilot deployed his folding bayonet and stabbed it into the container. Carving an L-shape into the metal he pulled his bayonet back and reached out with the free hand of his Tommy, grabbing and peeling back the metal. Leaving his mobile suit forward he attempted to gaze inside only to see a pitch black, unlit interior.

"What do you see Rookie?"

"Nothing yet sir, it's really da-"

The side of the carog container exploded outwards as a show of brilliant blue projectiles scattered outwards. Dozens of holes were punched clean through the investigating Tommy, throwing it backwards away from the cargo ship. Moments later the damaged mobile suit erupted into a fireball, exploding in a brilliant orb of heat and light that illuminated the darkness of space.

"ROOKIE!" The Avocati yelled as the top of the cargo container burst outwards, a humanoid silhouette shooting up and outwards into the space above the cargo ship.

[color=red]"BASTARD!"[/color

Raising his 90mm Bullpup the Zern soldier fired several quick bursts at the distant mobile suit, tracers lighting up space as he watched the enemy speed towards him maneuvering around his gunfire. Slamming his feet into the pedals on the floor the Avocati fired the thrusters of his Tommy in full, shooting upwards as another spray of magnetically propelled shrapnel shot cut through the space where he had been before.

Now the enemy mobile suit was close enough to see, a strange black and red mobile suit with a cape blowing behind it as it flew. It kept its distance from the Avocati and his Tommy, snapping open its strange double barreled weapon in order to reload.

"Reloading in front of me was a mistake, you missed your chance to kill me and now you're dead!" The Avocati barked over the comms, boosting forward as his Tommy shouldered its rifle and quickly switched to automated firing mode.

Lining up his targeting ridicule the Avocati dug his figure into the firing trigger.

But as he did so he realized too late that the enemy had put itself between him and the ship.

Just as the first few rounds left the barrel of his gun, the caped enemy shot downwards leaving only the light cruiser behind it.

Jerking his gun up, the Avocati narrowly avoided shooting his own allied ship just as the The Bruiser's guns fired. The three-barreled cannon that had been previous been lined up to shoot the enemy was instead lined up to fire him. Pulling down hard on his controls the Avocati only narrowly manuevered to the side in time as a trio of cruiser cannon rounds sped past him into the void.

"D-damn it!"

As the Avocati regained control of his mobile suit, the caped mobile suit finished reloading its shotgun as it flew beneath the Bruiser. Pointing its weapon upwards it quickly emptied both barrels, firing another two sprays of penetrative buckshot up into the two Tommy's still held within the clamps beneath the ship. The mobile suits were riddled with holes and exploded just as their pilots tried to enter them, erupting outwards and taking out a chunk of the ship's underbelly.

Darting back upwards the mobile suit flew into line of sight of the Avocati, intentionally snapping open the break-action mechanism of its shotgun as if to taunt him.

Heart racing, head pounding, the Avocati saw red and sped forward, throwing aside his bullpup as he drew his Tommy's baton.

"I'll enjoy hearing you scream!" The Avocati shouted as the enemy mobile suit remained stationary.

As the Avocati closed distance two guns suddenly slipped underneath the caped mobile suits arm and fired, spraying out rounds in a revertible cloud. Pulling his melee arm back he lifted his Tommy's free arm to protect his sensors and fighting arm. Yet the rounds that struck his mobile suit barely seemed to do any damage, crumbling against the liten armor.

"Haha. Useless weapons like that will get you killed! I have you now-"

Just as the Avocati spoke, several rounds from the SMGs curved and smashed into the mills bombs fixed to his Tommy's hips. Each grenade exploded in series, ripping the mobile suit in half, sending a wave of heat and shrapnel up through the cockpit, before obliterating the mobile suit. The caped mobile suit flew backwards as the Avocati detonated, becoming a brief brilliant star just like the rookie had moments before.

Below them the The Bruiser fired its thrusters and attempted to flee, charting a course towards the Annona Colony as the captain scrambled on the bridge to send a message through the particle interference.

"Command! Annona Colony command do you read me? This is the Buriser, we are under attack by an known enemy mobile suit! Repeat an unknown enemy mobile suit was aboard the Cargo ship Pinata! Repeat-"

The captain looked up from the comms console, staring out from the bridge window and out into space as the massive face of a mobile suit appeared. Its long slit like compound optic flashed briefly before the suit reared its arm back and buried its Cutlass into the bridge, leaving it in two. Anyone who wasn't crushed was sucked out into space to die in the freezing vacuum.

Pulling away from the bridge the caped mobile suit raised its shotgun one final time and fired two slug rounds into the ship, one straight down through the top of the ship and the other towards the back near the engines. Explosions erupted outwards from where the shotgun slugs had struck as fires spread and caused missiles and cannon rounds to cook off.

Turning its back to the ship the caped mobile suit flew off, not so much as glancing backwards as the Bruiser was ripped in half as its munitions detonated inside of its hull.

The Pinata had immediately made set in a landing course for Venus as soon as the gunfire had started flying. The Captain of the ship sat aboard the bridge, clutching the armrests of his seat and praying that they could land before the mobile suit returned. However a loud noise rang out though the ship and the entire bridge shook as something landed atop the vessel.

"Going somewhere?" A sultry female voice asked, coming over the speakers inside the ship as a direct-contact line was made.

"T-this wasn't part of our agreement!"

"Oh, wasn't it? I intended this from the very start. Its your own fault if you failed to realize that."

The captain swallowed hard, his face pallid as the rest of the bridge crew held their breath.

"Damn it...today is a disaster!"

"We're the ones who decide if our days are good or bad, little cargo-hauler. Perspective is everything. From my perspective today is going to be a wondrous day!"

The captain grimaced, already able to envision the wide wicked smile of the women in the Turncoat's cockpit.

"Now get the ship ready to land if you already haven't. We'll be landing before any more Zern show up. And I'm coming aboard. We have...finer details about our agreement to go over."

Laika is a young women standing 5,7 with a lithe, athletic frame and a heavy of short messy light brown hair atop her head. She has light skin often discolored with oil, dirt, dust, or a little bit of blood from scratched earned from work or fist fights on the street. Often dressed in a standard orange worker jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled up and decked out with a pair of steel-toed work boots a little too big for her, Laika often blends into crowds fairly easily. However he eyes are an a piercing yellow color and often stand out from her dirty face.

• Loyal
• Lonely
• Emotionally intense
• Curious
• Quick to anger
• Contemplative.

"--I don't really like to think about the past. At the same time, thinking about the future can be pretty scary. But what happened in the past makes us who were are right now. So if I just forget about it, then will I stop being me? That's an even scarier thought! I'm not sure there is any 'good' way to go about this, but I might as well write down my thoughts.

Up until I was seven years old, everything is blurry. Maybe you're not even supposed to remember that far back, but all I can recall is a lot of orange and grey. Venus feels pretty familiar to me when I look at it, so it was easy enough to figure out this was where I was born. After all I don't have any implants, so I can't be from Luna, and I'm not rich so I can't be from Mars, its uh--what's it called? Process of elimination.

But that doesn't matter. All that matters is when I met the Captain.

It was eleven years ago, 488 R.C I think.

For some reason I was on a ship, a big ship. All I can remember is staring out a window into space and feeling terrified. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and when I looked up she was there. The first time I saw the captain she had their fierce look in her eyes (she had both of them back then). Her orange eyes almost had a glow to them. I could tell just be looking that the captain wasn't afraid and I could tell that she didn't want to hurt me.

What happened after that is fuzzy. All I know is that I survived while a lot of other people ended up dead. The Captain doesn't like to talk about it and I don't like to think about it. But I don't need to think about it to know that the Captain saved my life. That's all I need to know.

After that I became a member of her crew! Well, sort of.

I became a 'cabin boy'. Apparently a long time ago, when ships sailed on the 'sea' (whatever that is) instead of in space young kids used to be used to do all kinds of chores. This was pretty much the same thing and I spent a lot of the time cleaning up, takings things to crew members, relaying messages, helping in the kitchen, and other boring stuff.

But it wasn't all bad. The Captain checked on me a lot, usually to tell me off for doing something wrong, but she always taught me things. Apparently I didn't know a lot of things I was supposed to even for being as young as I was. So she taught me how to read, how to write, how to do math, how computers work, the basics of piloting a ship, how to shoot a gun, and how to stab someone so they start bleeding out.

Normal stuff other kids probably got taught in school.

Despite being kind of useless aboard the ship compared to the others the Captain always treated me like I was important. That didn't mean she let me be lazy or skimp out on my work, and when I pissed her off I was always at risk of a caning. But she didn't yell at me unless I was doing something stupid and she took the time to show me things. The older I got the more responsibilities she gave me.

When I was with the Captain I always felt I knew what I had to do and that what I could do was meaningful.

By the time I was ten years old I was using mobile workers and helping to haul 'booty' from ships that we raided. Just a year later and I was actually fighting with the rest of the crew. Not that the Captain wanted me to fight. She showed me how, but said I should wait till I was older unless I wanted do die doing something stupid. But there were times where everyone on the ship had to fight, that or die.

Killing people...hurt. It was uncomfortable at first and made me feel very funny afterwards. But the Captain told me I shouldn't feel bad about hurting or killing other people. The people I kill don't care about me and would kill me without a second thought if it would benefit them. At the time I wasn't sure about that, but now...now I can see the Captain was absolutely right.

Despite all the fighting we made a lot of money. I normally didn't get a very big cut, but even the sliver of money I got was so much I didn't know what to do with it all. The Captain knew exactly how to use her money though and for a while things were really good. We won all of our fights, our fleet got bigger, and even the Zern were starting to become scared of us.

For a time I thought it would never end...but it did. And it ended badly.

The Captain was planning something, something big. She wouldn't tell me anything, only that if she suceeded she would be the one ruling Mars.

When she came back though she was missing a lot of ships, a lot of men, and one of her eyes. The rest of the crew didn't see it, but when I snuck into the Captain's room that night...I saw her crying for the first time in my whole life.

After that things were never the same. The Zern had gotten better weapons and our Mobile Workers were useless against them. Raiding ships became harder and Luna wasn't as safe as it used to be. Lots of the pirate fleets got destroyed and some just disbanded, ran away in fear. Our own fleet got smaller and smaller until it was just two ships. I remember the Captain doing everything she could and things just...fell apart.

Then, when I was 13 or 14, the Captain sent me away.

I didn't want to go, I wanted to fight, but when I tried to argue the Captain hit me hard enough to throw me off my feet.

The Captain said that I needed to go and that she would find me after she was done with

So I left with the head mechanic and headed to Venus.

We waited for the captain there for a long time and eventually our money ran out. Me and my 'uncle' had to get a job at a factory and started living in a capsule hotel. Then there was an accident and my 'uncle' died...leaving me all alone.

Later I heard that the Captain had gotten into a tight around Luna and died.

But I didn't believe that, and I still don't.

Its been four years since I last saw the Captain, but I'm still waiting here like she wanted me too.

Living on Venus isn't great. The habitats are big and somehow cramped at the same time. No one cares about me here. No one cares about anyone here. I can almost feel their apathy, their anger and their misery crushing down on me like a rock. It makes me sick and angry, enough that I just want to bury my fists into the next person I see.

I don't like it here, but neither does anyone else. The people from Mars and especially the Zern always seem so happy to be leaving. Seeing their smiles always makes me so angry. I can see why the Captain said it was OK to steal from them.

Everyone is so angry lately, so desperate, I can practically feel it in the air. Something is going to happen, something big.

Whatever happens I know the captain will be back for me.

I'm not sure when I'll bother writing in this journal, but the next time I do I hope it'll be with the Captain beside me.
-Laika, R.C 499

Outlaw Education: Laika's education was non-standard to say the least. While she learned important basics Laika was also instructed in the ways of knife-fighting, proper firearm usage, how to fight with her hands, the fundamentals of running a ship, how to board a ship, how to hide stolen goods, how to locate places to fence stolen goods, and other tricks of the criminal and piracy trade. Years later this knowledge has helped Laika stay alive on Venus.

Mobile Worker Experience: Laika has been using mobile suits since she was very young, both in a 'proper' and thoroughly illegal fashion. Her work as a mobile worker pilot in her industrial job has only kept her skills sharp and taught her all the different ways to weaponize various tools. Though she has limited experience with proper mobile suits she is never the less a capable pilot in combat situations and more then capable of engaging professionally trained combatants.

Human Kai- Precognitive Flashes: Unbeknownst to Laika, she is a "Human Kai". Her brainwaves are considerably stronger then a regular human, she has a greater sense of spatial awareness, and her body and mind are better suited for handling extreme G-forces. Even in her ignorant state unaware of what she actually is, the latent abilities inherent to all Human kai are still active within her own mind.

Laika is able to more easily sense the emotions and intents of other people. Her mind registers when someone wishes to direct harm towards her and gives her a brief 'flash' of what is about to occur. This allows Laika to react well before the action is taken, allowing her to avoid danger that she would otherwise be unaware of. It is thanks to this that Human kai have insane reaction times and can seeming 'see the future'.

However, there are drawbacks.

Having inherent, almost empathetic abilities negatively impacts Laika's own emotional health as she is acutely aware of how others feel on an almost constant basis, even her enemies. The long term side effects of this are unknown but on the whole Laika is much more emotionally erratic, having difficulties keeping her own feelings in check when surrounded by so many intense feelings.

Knowing something bad is going to happen, even before hand, does not always mean one can do anything about it. Not all attacks can be easily or cleanly avoided, even with prior warning. Overwhelming firepower can often negative the advantages of Human-Kai precognition by simply drowning the target in explosive munitions and large area of effect attacks.
Handmade Revolver: A six shot low-caliber single-action revolver with a short barrel. Made on machine tools in a workshop after hours the revolver has crude rifling and its mechanisms aren't exactly factory quality. Never the less it fires bullets and kills people, plus its small enough that Laika can easily conceal it and retrieve it when necessary. Which is good, because owning the weapon could easily get her thrown in jail.

Boot Knife: Hidden in Laika's right steel-toed boots is a razor sharp steel blade, capable of deploying from the tip of the boot after being promoted by a mechanism near the toe. I an instant the blade can be deployed and used as a kicking weapon, allowing Laika to make her kicks more then lethal. This is an excellent holdout weapon and one that can be used even if her arms are bound.

Laika is a young girl with a lot of potential. Her intimacy with mobile workers, her latent abilities as a Human-Kai, and her background working for a pirate leave her more prepared for rebellion then most. Despite her age she has zero qualms killing others and has the means to do so if needed. She can make the most out of mobile workers in combat, enough to go toe to toe with professional soldiers.

At the same time Laika is emotionally erratic and very emotionally dependent on her surrogate mother, Cathrida. This leaves her very vulnerable to being emotionally manipulated by those close to her and at risk of violent emotional spirals. Her combat experience is also rather limited starting out and is at a disadvantage against veteran, properly equipped pilots.
● Modified Model 7 Scuton

Lycoris stands five foot six with a slim figure, small bust, and a bookish appearance with large thick-framed glasses. Her eyes are a deep, regal purple color and her hair is light purple with black highlights often tied up in a ponytail. She is never without some kind of tablet or computer and is almost always seen carrying one with her.

• Intelligent
• Obsessive
• Prone to tunnel vision
• Imaginative and creative
• Desperate to prove herself
• Hungry for validation

Dear Princess Asallia.

I know we will be seeing each other soon, but I felt the need to write you this letter.

So many things have been happening late, I just can't keep my thoughts organized.

Its difficult not to ruminate on all the awful things that have happened to me. Yet, at the same time, I was reminded how blessed I was. So many opportunities were given to me, ones that I could have so easily passed up had I made a different choice so many years ago.

Do you remember when we first met?

I was just eleven years old. You had come to Luna as part of a charity event in the habitation tube we lived in. My aunt and uncle didn't care for you, but I couldn't help but be drawn to you. I had heard your singing on (admittedly pirated) data cartridges and couldn't wait to meet you. Before the event began I had picked flowers to give to you, but I spent so much time picking that I was nearly late.

I ran so fast that I ended up dropping all of the flowers, save for one.

There we so many people and when I saw you I became so nervous that I just wanted to hide. Even back then I was self-conscious about my 'horns'. Yet you had seen me standing off to the side and actually approached me.

I'll never forget how you smiled when I gave you that dainty, wilted little flower and told me that it was beautiful.

I couldn't help but smile myself and had to fight to hold back my tears. You kept talking to me, even as your entourage kept pressing you to move on. I'm not sure what I said to impress you but whatever it was was enough to give you the idea for the John Huffam Outreach program. You chose me as the first recipient of the program, then and there at the charity.

You never asked about my parents, or why I lived with my aunt and uncle, but I think you could tell how unhappy I was when I didn't ask to say goodbye to them.

Traveling to Mars was one of the most exciting memories I have. I can remember getting off the ship with the other children and looking up into the sky and simply losing myself in how wide open everything was. I'll admit that I was honestly kind of scared with how blue the sky looked, it didn't seem right I thought something was already wrong.

I know now that a lot of people tried to stop you from setting up the program. Admitting children to one of the most prestigious technical institutes on Mars, if not in the Empire, must have seemed absolutely ludicrous for them. I still remember how they stared when you brought us into M.I.T for the first time, you must have looked like a school teacher with a gaggle of children behind her.

From the get go everyone seemed eager for us to fail, but we all did our best to prove them wrong. Despite our age we proved our intelligence and the more we learned the more we pushed back. There was one professor I managed to embarrass by correcting him. Maybe it was bit juvenile of me, but I felt I was defending your decision and your honor by doing that.

Time passed so quickly there that before I knew it we were being tasked with proving what we had learned.

I was given a shoe-string budget and set out to make my first mobile suit. It was a crude little thing, but I poured my heart, soul, and all the ideas that everyone had scoffed at. When time came to show it off the thing was functional, but disappointing. Yet there was someone who saw what I was onto. He was a genera, old and crusty, but with a bright warm smile. The man offered me chance to improve on what I had made and I took it without thinking.

After I realized what I had agreed to, I was afraid to tell you. You had taught us the importance of communication, of making things to improve the lives of others instead of destroy them. But I loved mobile suits and they were only really used by the military. So I kept quiet about the whole thing as he set me up with everything I needed.

It must have seemed ridiculous, I can still remember the looks on the faces of the people sent to assist me with some things when they saw how young i was. But I didn't squander a pence given to me, didn't waste an instant on that project. From the moment I had the means to create what I wanted I went at it with everything I could bring to bear.

Night and day I worked, researching, testing, building, breaking, and doing everything I could to refine all the ideas that no one else but me saw the possibility in. It was because I was so young, so disregarded that I was desperate for validation. Deep down I felt that you would never approve of what I was doing, that you would be ashamed of me, and that I could only get what I wanted from others.

And I'm sorry for that.

Eventually the mobile suit took form, sleek, refined, and advanced. I was given a test pilot and we got so many things done. Each day brought a bigger and bigger smile to my face. It seemed the finish line was just over the hill. I could already see the shocked faces of all the nobles and the looks of awe from my professors when my mobile suit was revealed.

But...then it went wrong.

The KINGSFORD system, it had side effects I couldn't have foreseen. It wasn't just a technical failure, even if it worked fine the long term effects would have resulted in the same thing. The issue was the pilot, the brain, it couldn't handle it...

That just sounds like I'm making excuses, doesn't it? When the test pilot died and they pulled his broken body from the cockpit, it seemed like everyone was ready to ruin me then and there. But you heard about what had happened and swooped in to save me.

I was crying, finally looking and acting like someone my age as you consoled me. As my mobile suit was sealed up and covered in tarps I still remember what you said.

"Poor thing, just like Oliver."

I remembered you reading us Oliver Twist. You loved that book so much and even then, after I had kept what I had done a secret, after I had helped to build a weapon, you were able to take pity on me and what I had made.

Oliver...that was the what I named my mobile suit as it was carted off.

Only later did I realize that the program that sprung out of my attempt would carry that naming theme, which only made me feel guiltier.

Since then I've tried to salvage my reputation. I've been working as a general researcher, where I'm allowed too anyway. People seem ready to jump on any failure, any slip of mine, and explode it into some kind of disaster. Everyone has started calling me the "Bicorn" like I'm so monster that eats up good husbands and spits them out as dead, broken corpses.

However I managed to cut a deal with a development team on the project, one who had actually stolen some of my work. They'll pull some strings and give me a chance to prove myself, to bring the Oliver out of storage and show everyone that I'm not a failure.

I'll be on my way to Venus soon, likely on the same ship as you. I hope that you'll see me...

Your faithful student

Lycoris Sparks.
Neural Implant: Installed into the back of her neck, Lycoris has a Neural Implant that allows her to physically connect with systems via a universal port and connection cable. This gives her greater control over whatever she hooks herself into, allowing her to better use or fix it should something be wrong. This implant is standard for all Lunites and is implanted in them shortly after they are born. Lycoris however tends to hide her implant and refrains from using it, due to the stigma against cybernetics in the Empire.

HORN Implant: When Lycoris was very young she received a head injury severe enough to damage her vision. In order to help recuperate that part of the brain a special implant was fitted into the frontal bone of her skull. These implants took the form of two sharp, horn-like sensors protruding out of her forehead. Each 'horn' is fitted with a sensor that helped to compensate for damaged vision while simultaneously stimulating and assisting in rehabilitating the damaged portion of her brain. While Lycoris has long since recovered her vision, the horns now serve as secondary purpose, acting as wireless transmitters and receivers.

The HORN implants allow Lycoris to wirelessly connect to systems and control them. There are limits to this, often due to particle interference, but in practical application she can use several different computers at once just by thinking allowing her to amplify her work output via extreme multi-tasking. Due to the nature of the HORN implants however, they are difficult to hide and more often then not are visible to all.

Mobile Suit Affinity: Lycoris has a strong passion and innate grasp of many of the important fundamentals of mobile suits. This has allowed to excel in her studies and research regarding MS, fueling her love of the machines and feeding her creativity. She's not simply capable of maintaining and modifying mobile suits, but designing them from the ground up and entirely overhauling them.

Martian Institute of Technology Education: Thanks to Princess Asallia, Lycoris was allowed to attend the prestigious M.I.T. There she was able to refine and reinforce her already high intelligence with a good education. Thanks to her years at MIT she has extensive knowledge of electronic, mechanical, computer, and robotic engineering as well as many aspects of weapons and armor manufacturing.
Screen Glasses: What's a good way to protect your information and stop people from looking at your screen? Lycoris thought hard and eventually developed a solution. By uploading a certain bit of software to a computer, the screen will appear completely black and unreadable. That is, to anyone who doesn't have the right filter. Lycoris's thick-framed glasses have a special digital screen laminated across the glass. As long as she wears these glasses, Lycoris is able to see the 'dark screen' as if it were normal. Allowing her to work in the open with no fear of being monitored by others.

Letter Writing Kit: A small, pen and paper letter writing kit that was gifted to Lycoris by the Princess Asallia years ago. She has kept the letter kit since then and has used it frequently to write old-fashioned physical letters to the Princess.

Arm Mounted Computer: Lycoris uses an arm mounted, custom-built computer typically mounted on her right forearm like a gauntlet. It has a collapsing/unfurling keyboard and lacks a screen, but has many capable and ports for connecting with other devices. It can hook up to her glasses to allow her to use it without a monitor. She can also connect to the computer wirelessly using her Horn implants or physically connect with it via her Neural Implant, but typically refrains from doing so.
Lycoris is a brilliant designer with a deep affinity for mobile suit and weapons technology. With her deep technical know-how she is capable of performing maintenance on any machine she can get her hands on and his capable of making improvements to designs, provided she is given the proper materials. The cybernetics she is fitted with allow her to more easily connect to systems for diagnostic work and general operation, allowing her to work faster and multi-task to a lubricious degree. Her experimental technologies are incredibly ambitious and are more often then not a step above what is commonly available.

However, her more ambitious designs also tend to come with unforeseen complications and drawbacks that many assume are always lethal. Lycoris's reputation as a designer has long since been poisoned and most view her designs, suggestions, and ideas as inherently dangerous. While she is capable of operating mobile suits, her combat experience is non-existent and her technical prowess is of little use in controlling her fear in the heat of battle. Lycoris is also often hesitant to use her cybernetics, as it is just another reason she is treated poorly in the Empire.
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