[Traitor!] [Murderer!] [Mindless automata!] [Pawn of Machines!]

Once again, even after two weeks passed following the destruction of Striker and thus, any Galactic Alliance influence on Earth, Yayoi was the victim of horrifying nightmares when she discovered the link between the Hideauze and pre-space age humanity, the images of past Hideauze extermination she issued being replaced with that of her friends and family onboard the Gargantia and even those among the Tempest Flotilla; it immediately shocking her awake and making her scream in horror, panting heavily as she desperately tries to regain some degree of control over herself

"Again...I keep...I keep having these nightmares. Nightmares where I'm not killing Hideauze, not truly. I'm killing Amy. Melty. Saaya. Ridget. Ledo. This is destroying me mentally. I've had to ask my predecessor to assume some level of command over the last couple of days because of how weak I am right now. Even with the medication Dr. Oldham gave me, I'm still suffering and I am blaming it on a lack of sleep to reassure the crew. Will I even be able to forgive myself for such a horrid war crime against my own kind? I'm a hypocrite for believing I was serving a righteous cause to save humanity when I was unknowingly doing the opposite. I-I need a drink. I think the bar's open right now."

Dressing herself up in a decent outfit, applying makeup to hide her disgruntled features, Yayoi slowly exited her house, somberly recalling the lack of the Machine Caliber who once guarded her abode with utmost dedication as she walked through the fleet, quickly intercepted by her younger twin: Seo Nishihara who took up work as a member of security.

"Are you okay sis? You look ghastly." Despite his blunt choice of words, he genuinely wanted to say something to comfort his older twin since she hardly looked her best, especially since they had only just recently reunited after spending years apart and he wanted to try catching up. Serious to the point of severity, yes; but despite him lacking any and all idea of what family truly means, he is trying to go with his gut and try to play the part of family with the sister he has just been reunited with.

"Thanks for that. I just enjoy receiving that kind of comment from someone. Especially my own brother." Befitting her sarcastic remark, Yayoi rolled her eyes in mild irritation.

"I-I didn't mean-! It's just that-! Look...I'm worried about you sis. You've been in pretty poor shape ever since…" Seo had enough knowledge of common decency to stop himself there since he was about to talk about Emi, which is a very sour point for her since it was their mom he was about to talk about. A person who had just sacrificed her life to protect Yayoi and bought a precious few moments for Armalith to arrive. But upon a second glance, Seo noticed Yayoi not properly dressed for the cold weather night time presents, especially since he noticed subtle inclinations of her shivering from the cold, taking off his jacket and putting it over Yayoi "Here. I can deal with the cold."

"I'm surprised you're not asking me to go back to sleep."

"I know the Laverty lineage well enough to know you'd power through even if I tried getting you to stand down. I'm not going to waste strength trying to persuade you otherwise. Besides, I know it might be a challenge for you considering...Hey, you want something to eat? My treat." Seo started out talking rather calmly, slowing down when he was about to talk about Emi again before diverting the subject to food, his time onboard the Gargantia doing security got him some monetary compensation and he wants to use the first of it to try soothing some of his sister's anxieties to the best of his ability.

"No, you don't have much in the way of funds Seo. Conserve your finances until you have a surplus. I can afford the occasional splurging."

As the twins began walking in the direction of the nearest bar, climbing up the stairs of the respective building to reach it since it operates on the second floor, finding it largely empty aside from the bartender and a handful of customers, though the twins quickly recognize Alina Kelley at the counter, her shiny snow white hair which flows down to her waist, making her stand out among the crowd, in addition to how she's still wearing her pilot suit, which only Machine Caliber pilots have, Kotori Hamasaki being something of a weird exception since she was exposed to nanites allowing her to act as a surrogate pilot for A4794 Sylpheon, a moot point since the only Machine Calibers remaining on Earth are the ones belonging to the Terminus' exclusive use: X4682 Altair, S2749 Corsair, K1837 Vruian, A8492 Aquarius, N3848 Dragon, L5947 Harbinger, and Muzzle.

"Another! Keep em coming barkeep!" Alina placed three pieces onto the counter, her words slurred with intoxication, and in its place, a mug of beer replaced the coins she used to pay for it.

Slowly approaching the inebriated Alina, Seo gently poked her shoulder, making the woman slowly turn around to face the pair

"What are you doing here Admiral? I thought you were going to meet up with Ceres to discuss farming techniques for our colonies with the natives here."

"Don't care right now. We won't be able to return to the others until (hic) Adam sends us a shuttle since our (hic) Machine Calibers were damaged from descent. And that won't be for a month at least. (hic). So I'm going to kick back and (hic)." Pausing herself to focus her weakened sight, she noticed that Seo wasn't alone in talking with her, seeing Yayoi right next to him "Oh, hiya Chief. Why are there two of you?"

"You're drunk Admiral. Go home and sleep."

"I'm not drunk, how dare you!"

"That's what every drunk says. I'm calling Admiral Montelth." Befitting his irritation, Seo activated his communicator to try summoning the officer in question, surprisingly arriving in a mere ten minutes since he was stationed rather close by since he too is a new member of the security forces for Gargantia, taking the weakened officer away to recover "Can we get two house specials?"

After receiving the food Seo ordered, they began to eat in a quiet corner; Yayoi pausing after a short time

"If you don't mind my asking Seo; what is life like among the Terminus? My perspective is skewed because of the Alliance's indoctrination. I, alongside everyone else, was instructed to think of you as criminals."

"Yes, I am aware of that facet. Mostly through the people who defected to join us. Life is difficult for us. We may have been able to colonize multiple worlds, but they're all inhospitable. we're trapped in domes or underneath the planetary surface, behind reinforced blast doors in small chambers we can pressurize. Much like the Alliance, as much as I loathe to admit it, everyone is expected to pull their weight. But we're not like them. We reassign people to suitable roles if they find themselves incapable of what we need of them. We don't exile them. We used to live in that filthy, barely maintained station, but when Fleet Admiral Laverty told us we could have a better life when he came to us, we were skeptical but he turned us around when he made our hydroponics three times more efficient, exponentially increased our mining efforts, it only goes on from there. He stayed at the Tempest Terminal with a handful of people to maintain the illusion of us being weak, broken, and divided, telling Alliance inspectors that many of them are deceased because of poor resource allocation to keep some people alive, when in reality, we've moved the 'deceased' peoples to other colonies. Of course, a couple of weeks ago, before we deployed Armalith here to Earth, we pretty much made a formal declaration that we had been screwing them for years. Admiral Montelth, Garza, and I ran interference while the others pursued our true objective: Liberating about two hundred and fifty personnel from the Alliance when they sent a discreet SOS signal to us, begging for freedom since vague rumors had been floating about around the time of Armalith's elites being exiled and the 'disappearance' of- Erm. A-Anyway, the people we freed were biologists, engineers, technicians, AI programmers, so on and so forth, they also brought vital equipment that supplemented us and allowed us far greater independence. Our capabilities grew exponentially with their help and our final gesture of disobedience was us severing the link between the warp gate they established outside the Tempest Terminal and their own so they couldn't hunt us any further. We're free of them." 'Geez, why do I keep almost bringing up our parents?! I never even knew them in my life and sis just lost her mother! I don't know why it's even in my thoughts!'

"Interesting. I wasn't aware of that, but then again, it seems like that the operation was done around the time I found myself here on Earth. But that begs the question: How were you able to do it? How were you three able to divert an entire army long enough to get those people out?"

Hearing the question made Seo smile very proudly, his eyes closed as he regales in the operation "Very carefully. We faked Hideauze signatures in several sectors to draw a majority of the Alliance away, then we deployed our offensive team in a weak spot almost immediately after confirmation of diversion tactics to further fracture their lines, then we had several shuttles fly in and get our targets at predetermined rally points. It took a lot of precise timing and cohesion to make sure it worked. It was a plan that required nothing less than our elites."

"That kind of reminds me. What happened to Ivan? I don't get why you're piloting Vruian."

"Ivan Grimaldi was executed by the Alliance when Armalith discovered the truth behind Sylpheon's Artificial Intelligence. The bastards made Ivan an example for the others. I was chosen as a replacement though I never can be as good as he was. How about you sis? Any memorable battles?"

"None come to mind really. Each was horrific and I lost good people each time, the battle that made me come to Earth firmly annihilated what was left of Armalith according to the Alliance. Despite that, it is arguably my happiest memory in recent history. Once I learned the truth, I'm glad it got me away from the Alliance."

"Oh yeah...not going to lie sis, that revelation shook a ton of us to the core. I mean...the Hideauze being former humans...damn."

After mention of the Hideauze was brought up, the twins became silent, neither knowing what to say to each other after the bomb got dropped, Yayoi turning to face the owner of the bar

"Can I get a strong drink? Perhaps what Alina had?"

"Sis?"

"I don't want to talk about it Seo. I need to drown some real strong sorrows. Just let me have this."

Despite him having some serious reservations about the idea, Seo stayed silent as he saw Yayoi downing the beverage almost at once

"Ahh, I love this place's alcohol. They add just enough fruit to disguise the taste. And before you start complaining, I'm not a regular at this establishment. I just...look, I've been uneasy for days now and I need some way to get my mind off things, especially when my art isn't helping much in that regard, and it used to eat away my entire day when I get really engrossed in it. Yes, it's unhealthy, but dammit, I'm trying to learn what it means to be human and my chemistry is not exactly fully attuned yet!"

"Yeah; the Alliance raised us to be weapons, nothing more. It's revolting and I'm glad the Terminus Flotilla doesn't follow their doctrines. They want us to be individuals above anything. It's why so many of us are driven to help Admiral Laverty. He saved us when we were at our lowest, picked us up to reform us into a mighty force to be reckoned with. Of course, we were hesitant to develop military armaments since we didn't have anyone capable of training us. We'd get beat the moment they caught any suspicion of us training. But that changed when Armalith came to us. It took a while, but they came around and began training a militia, especially when we began constructing our own Machine Calibers based off Armalith's designs. Muzzle was an experiment for a design, but it's a bit of a...not totally mind you, but elements of his construction was deemed a failure."

Moments after Seo had said this, his head was immediately forced downward by a powerful slap, swiftly pulling himself up and turning a 180, his face full of rage

"I hope you're ready for a-" Seo stopped when he saw that the person who had slapped him was Reema herself, her expression as angry as his, making him immediately shiver in his boots, Yayoi mildly surprised to see Kotori next to her, wearing the custom suit Emi constructed for her 'Oh FUCK! I insulted Muzzle right in front of her! She gets unbelievably pissed when someone does that!'

"Care to repeat yourself Ensign Nishihara?"

"N-No Ma'am-I mean...Lieutenant Commander!"

"Just because you're a part of Armalith DOES NOT give you freedom to disrespect our chain of command, even if we are relaxed about protocol. Remember that!"

"Y-Yes Lieutenant Commander!"

"Dismissed."

Hearing this order, Seo sheepishly exited the building, not wanting to be around right now. With the trio now by themselves, Reema sat down in front of Yayoi and gestured Kotori to sit down next to Yayoi

"I'm glad I was able to catch you Yayoi. I've received some high priority correspondence from Fleet Admiral Laverty the other day."

"What did the Fleet Admiral send you Reema? Is it something I have to worry about? Remember that I'm not all that experienced to these things unlike you two."

"What I've been told isn't going to affect Earth right now, but there is a threat in a remote corner of our border lines. According to the long range scanners on our homeworld, we detected Hideauze on the move."

Hearing this caused the pair to widen their eyes in shock at the implications, Yayoi's through pure experience against the Hideauze horde and Kotori's through ingrained instincts given to her by the nanites in her bloodstream

"I-Is Earth going to be attacked?! I don't know what these things are, but I can just tell that they'd be the death of my friends and family."

"For the time being Hamasaki, no. But knowing the Hideauze, they're not going to just leave in peace. We're readying our forces for confrontation against them."

"Do you guys have to fight?"

"Unfortunately so. Some of our senior officers do wish we could negotiate, but the Hideauze are unfortunately little more than mindless parasites. We can't let them infest our territory. Maybe they do want to live in peace. If so, we may decide to leave them be. But the moment they enter a sector we've established a base in, we will have no choice but to declare it a declaration of war. A war where we will exterminate the Hideauze without mercy."

"What about Armalith Reema? Will they be recalled to remain on stand-by if the need arises?"

"Unfortunately, not at this time Lieutenant. Suborbital descent damaged Armalith's Machine Calibers. If they try to leave before we can get parts shipped here, it'll take months to get them back in fighting order. According to Admiral Montleth, they've been trying to get Vruian repaired first by taking parts of their own machines. In addition to the pragmatism of the decision, it is also symbolic so all of Armalith can be part of the action if fighting happens before they can join. Of course, I'll be departing as well with Muzzle to join Vruian if the fighting starts."

"So it'll be you two going to rejoin the Terminus Flotilla?"

"As soon as the shuttle arrives with parts. We don't want to risk damaging our Machine Calibers again." Reema stopped speaking for a time as she put a hand to her chin "Hey, you mind if you two could tell me about your operational history with Machine Calibers? I want to get performance reviews I can submit to my superiors back in the Flotilla so we can improve our training regimes." Reema had to fight the urge to smile and maintain her stoic facade since there's a secret reason for her asking this question, amidst the truth of her words.

"Do you have a terminal or something we can use to submit our answers?"

"Yes I do Hamasaki."

Digging into her pack, she produces a miniature laptop and sets it down on the table "So just tell me about anything you think is relevant, even if it's far-fetched. I want our people to be able to benefit from your experiences."

Taking time to give answers to what Reema had asked to a rather significant degree, to the point of a documentary on their lives, she felt content and packed up her equipment

"Thank you for your time ladies. I need to return to Muzzle so he can transmit the data to Admiral Laverty. I'll inform you of the results in due time."

Returning the laptop into her pack and putting it on her person, Reema pulled herself up and exited the building, calmly descending the stairs down to level ground, walking to the edge of the walkway hidden in the building's shadow, turned her back and leaned enough to make her fall, quickly intercepted by Muzzle who had been hidden nearby, landing comfortably into the cockpit. After adjusting herself, she attached her laptop to a nearby console

[Fleet Admiral Laverty, I have data from Lieutenant Yayoi Nishihara and Seaman Kotori Hamasaki. Send it to Project Andromeda as soon as I transmit.]

[Your cooperation is thankful as always Reema. But listen, we'd gain the utmost advantage if you can acquire data from Sylpheon's data archived in Lieutenant Nishihara's earpiece. Remember that it acts as both an activation key and information cache.]

[I'm sorry Fleet Admiral, but that has to stay off the table. Nishihara thinks of that earpiece as the very last remnant of her mother, and for very good reason. She'll never relinquish it. I'm not going to try so let us make due without. Besides, remember that AI has a cursed background! I do not want it among our own!]

[Unfortunate. Sylpheon's Artificial Intelligence is among the most advanced the Alliance had ever made. We need AI of that-]

[Admiral, forgive my insubordination, but an innocent woman DIED to create Sylpheon's AI! I. Refuse. To. Let. That. Happen. To. Our. People!]

[You misunderstand my intent Reema. Remember that the woman who died to create Sylpheon was my sister-in-law and with her gone, the only people remaining in my family are myself and my niece and nephew: Yayoi and Seo. I do not want to recreate that sort of AI perfectly. I want access to her roadmap so I can duplicate the structure onto our manufactured AIs. I want to combine mass-produced Artificial Intelligences with Sylpheon's advanced capabilities to induce human-like evolution and adaptability, in addition to a stronger ability of bonding between pilot and machine. None of the horror of converted human based AI, I swear to you.]

[Well...okay then.]

[Stay on alert Reema. We have no idea what the Hideauze will do and I want to keep our forces ready for deployment if they begin to create a nest.]

[Understood Fleet Admiral. By the way, when can we expect the shuttle to arrive on Earth?]

[Provided we can get our engineers working immediately, a month. Also, try to get Alina, Destini, and Ceres moving since we need to work on our hydroponics from a world that can maintain genuine farms. If we could try to create domes around our planets, we might be able to artificially create a livable atmosphere through biosynthesis. Worst case scenario, we spend decades or centuries slowly trying to establish some level of survivable atmosphere.]

[But wouldn't that require an extreme amount of power?]

[Yes, but we've already built a number of solar arrays scattered on each world, supported by transceivers positioned in such a way that gives us almost unlimited solar energy. Our projections believe this should be sufficient based on the designs. We won't be taking risks with transplanting life until we're sure it's completely stable. I need to disconnect Reema. I need to keep watch over the Hideauze and send an order to the shipyard to ramp up Machine Caliber production.]

[Yes sir.]

As days went on, Yayoi still struggling to deal with sleep, being able to achieve it relatively undisturbed with help from Doctor Oldham's medicine, a month had quickly passed, as Yayoi was called to one of the Gargantia's border ships alongside Kotori by Reema, who arrives on-site with the other members of Armalith, their Machine Calibers alongside them. Upon them uniting, five wing-shaped shuttles was seen in the distance, which honestly have more in common with gunships, navigating to land nearby, floating above the ocean, causing weak waves to emerge from underneath the craft

"Eh? Five shuttles? I thought the Flotilla was only going to send one."

"Nope. The Admiral sent us Project Andromeda which was completed in record time. Chief, go to the shuttle second from the left. Kotori Hamasaki, second from right."

Confused at Julius' words, but nonetheless following his request, the pair went to the designated shuttles; the bay doors opening upon arrival to reveal the contents within: Two Machine Calibers, the one in front of Kotori being primarily colored blue, with red and gold trimming. To her surprise, she noticed the Machine Caliber had more in common with birds than what seemed to be standard issue among the Alliance and Terminus. Meanwhile, the one in front of Yayoi was shaped to be similar to old pictures of feline hunters colored white with blue trims, all of Armalith and Reema smiling at the shocked expression coming from the pair

"Lieutenant Yayoi Nishihara. Seaman Kotori Hamasaki. Say hello to your custom made Machine Calibers designed around what you told me in the evaluation last month. Lieutenant, yours is named X4829 Dormarch. He will be under your command with the loss of A4794 Sylpheon. His combat parameters have been tiered to match that of Commander class units like Striker. Unfortunately, this unit is fairly bulky and slow, but it is very powerful." Turning heel to face Kotori next "Seaman, your unit is named L2847 Garuda. He is specialized in long-range combat with godly speed, similar in stature to the late Sylpheon. Considering your inexperience, it's a good idea for you to have this kind of armament. Keep you away from enemies if you find yourself in battle."

"O-O-O-Our...Our own...Machine Calibers...WOW!" Kotori struggled to keep calm and outright screamed in utter joy at the sight in front of her. While she was never all that interested in technology prior to her incident exposing her to Sylpheon's medical nanites months ago, she noticed her mindset changing; wanting to experience more in the way of engineering and even combat.

"Why would you give us custom units like this Reema?" Yayoi was confused at the gesture from the Terminus since she didn't expect this of all things: Custom made Machine Calibers.

"Consider it a boon of sorts from the Terminus Flotilla. They want our best having custom units."

"What about Ledo? Does he not get his own?" After pulling herself away, Kotori did the math in her head. Two Machine Calibers, yet there were technically three pilots among the genuine Gargantia crew as Armalith insists on being treated as visitors, same with Reema. Although she was outright ecstatic to get her own unit, she was wondering why she was chosen over Ledo since he was more experienced than she was.

"Believe it or not, Ledo actually asked that he not be given a Machine Caliber. We originally desired to have Ledo and Yayoi take up the mantle, but since he refused, we chose you since you have experience with Machine Calibers, even if minimal." Alina spoke up with an expression mixed with unease and sorrow since she would've wanted to keep Kotori uninvolved and keep things exclusive to trained pilots, but the flotilla had already created two AI cores per the plan for Project Andromeda so she had shoved her unease to the side, and the Armalith elites didn't think of anyone among their recruits ready for such powerful units.

"Lieutenant Nishihara, Seaman Hamasaki, go take the units for a spin. I want to see what you're capable of."

Whereas Kotori rushed eagerly to get Garuda moving, Yayoi was more apprehensive as she walked toward Dormarch, both entering the respective units as it slowly begins powering up

[L2847 Garuda powering up.]

[X4829 Dormarch powering up.]

[Requesting identification.]

"My name is Kotori Hamasaki of the Gargantia Fleet."

"My identification is Yayoi Nishihara, formerly of the Galactic Alliance, but now a member of the Gargantia."

[Identification registered. This unit will henceforth be assigned to Kotori Hamasaki.]

[Identification registered. This unit will henceforth be assigned to Yayoi Nishihara.]

"Dromarch, power up thrusters and establish a flight path among a randomized tertiary axis. Keep impact with existing structures to zero percent."

"Garuda, let's go have a test flight and see what you're capable of, okay?"

Upon disconnecting from the shuttles' bays and beginning their test flights, the process proceeding smoothly though things quickly go awry when Dormarch's flight pattern begins to stutter, to the confusion of the Armalith officers below them

[Traitor!] [Murderer!] [Mindless automata!] [Pawn of Machines!]

Much like the nightmares she had suffered, being exposed to movement in a Machine Caliber was causing a deadly relapse as Yayoi began to struggle keeping cohesion in Dormarch's movements, screaming in horror as the same kind of images keep burning themselves into her mind, all attempts of outside contact falling on deaf ears

"Garuda, Dormarch's spiraling out of control and we can't contact the pilot! Assist Vruian in extracting the unit!"

"A-Acknowledged Reema!" Kotori had seen the companion Machine Caliber flying erratically, but had simply presumed it was part of Yayoi wanting to test Dormarch's systems more strongly, where Kotori is keeping her test simple.

Abandoning the test to get Dormarch to safe ground, Garuda and Vurian took flight in pursuit of the unstable unit, taking a firm hold on the arms and slowly descended down to surface level, the trio exiting their respective units, Yayoi doing it far more slower than the others

"Lieutenant, what the heck happened out there? Was there a systems malfunction?"

"N-No...I-I can't use Dormarch. I am suffering from trauma stemming from the discovery of the Hideauze. The existence of Machine Calibers is ingrained with the trauma. I was able to suppress it when Striker was active since I needed to focus on that above anything else, but when it was defeated and I...lost Emi...I can't keep the pressure from caving in on me. I've been reduced to taking almost daily medication to keep things in check. I could tell from mere sight that Dormarch is an excellent unit, but it deserves someone better than a washed out pilot confined to Earth."

Hearing this from Yayoi made everyone present develop expressions of sorrow since Yayoi was easily one of the most dedicated, yet the image in front of them was corrupted by the troubles plaguing her, the sorrow only escalating when the girl ran off in the direction of the fleet's interior

"Sis!" "Chief!" "Lieutenant!" "Yayoi!"