Now she lives up to her song's title

[prismphantom]

[1]

[Team Jelba... gone.  Just... gone.  Captain Symphonia.  Alfredo.  Vasquez.  Rubio.  More than her friends, her family.  The people she'd been intending to catch up with after months separated from them.  People she knew and trusted and fought hard to avenge.  Hard enough that the Gesterben is just barely more than a pile of scrap.]

Why, Captain...?

Why did you have us all march into that deathtrap?  You wouldn't have sold us out so... why...?

[2]



And you're SURE?



Absolutely!  'Operation Doll's' orders are dated after Ingram's defection and the files aren't fabricated!

[The other two surviving members of Team Jelba are handling this... a bit better.  Not much though.]



... Of all the rotten luck then... Those files are probably only going to raise more questions and never provide answers even if we get them cracked.  Ingram's going to pay for this.  Him and his 'friend'...

If you still have the schematics for the AS in you... it might be wise to make the most of them.  Selena's going to need something if she's going to keep fighting, and I'd rather she have the best we can give her.

Start salvaging everything you can from everyone's machines.  The ground team's mechs should still be fine, so that means that the Captain's Prism Phantom'll at least be an option for her.

Comments

2

[abugslife]

Major Ingram again. Even after his betrayal, he still manages to find ways to disrupt our operations. With tragic results.

[prismphantom]

I just hope that nobody in the upper brass gets the idea of trying to paint the Captain as a traitor or anything. He'd never sell us out to the Balmarians, especially when he got killed anyways!

[abugslife]

If anyone expresses such statements, I will have a few words with them. Even at the very end, Captain Symphonia prioritized the safety of his underlings; this is not how a traitor who sold them out to the enemy acts.

[deathflag_survivor]

He's half the reason that the whole team was able to stay alive up until... what happened. If he really had planned something with Ingram, he must've had good reasons for it.

We're all just left in the dark about it because... because of what happened.

[abugslife]

How is lieutenant Recital holding up? I would not be surprised if she prefers to be left alone for a while.

[deathflag_survivor]

Worse than I am, let me tell you that. At least in my case... I've had to go through something like this before. This... it's all new for Selena. Though I'd imagine it'd be even worse if she didn't have the Unity Group.

[abugslife]

She will need time. Loss hits hardest when you experience it for the first time.

To find out about the goals of Ingram, and the reason Balmarians were there, we will need to assemble a whole picture from the tiny scraps we were given. And most of the scraps seem to be missing. It is a monumental task, but a crucial one if you want to avenge your fallen team.

[prismphantom]

You can count on me to uncover the truth! It might be nearly impossible... but I won't rest until I manage to decode the files for Operation Doll I have.

I owe it to Selena... I owe it to everyone here for helping us fight back!

[abugslife]

Good. Let me know if you find something, or encounter an obstacle where you will need help. I am sure Unity Group can spare some hardware to do the time-consuming calculations for you.

[mistaken_for_monster]

Selena...

[Volya spoke softly as he carefully moved over to her. He wasn't sure what to do... he asked himself... what would his friends do? Unsure of his actions he reaches out for her hand and holds it tightly.]

[prismphantom]

[She's first surprised by the gesture, but her own hand returns the favor and holds fast to his.]

They were my family... and you understand the risks with this kind of job...

But all of them... all at once...

[mistaken_for_monster]

...

[He wanted to tell her that he knows what its like to lose people you care about but... honestly it would feel hollow considering his family was about a few people. Selena just lost almost everybody at once.]

I... I know it hurts... but at least... for a while you were together again... right...?

Ren told me that its okay to hurt... but... we'll be here for you when you need us to help out. You've still got Albhard... and we can keep that person from hurting more people...

[prismphantom]

I didn't want... just a few minutes together with them. I didn't want all of them taken away like they were!

But... thank you...

2

[tiger_ken]

Elma, when you say the orders for the mission came from Ingram, how did you know? Was there a sender ID, or was his voice in a transmission, or...?

[Ken's baffled as to how someone they've already outed as an alien spy managed to yet again issue orders that led to... all this.]

[prismphantom]

Files on Operation Doll are stored inside of me. They were all encrypted, for that 'need to know' thing... even I can't be able to access them unless there was some sort of "trigger" to grant me clearance.

Seeing that woman who looked like Ingram did unlock some of the data though. Audio files between Symphonia and Ingram.

[tiger_ken]

Would you be able to play any of them back? I wanna hear exactly how these orders were given.

[prismphantom]

I'll try... bringing up the files now-

[Elma's eyes shift color, and suddenly the somewhat static-y message begins playing. Albhard's looking with rapt attention too, and sure enough Ingram and Symphonia are heard talking, discussing orders. If it weren't for the traitorous revelation about Ingram, there'd be nothing bizarre about this at all...

[Until suddenly long periods of static begin selectively edit out key words and phrases. "Go to the station and investigate for ----------". "The security of ------------ is something I need to ensure so --------------------". "This needs to be kept secret as possible, but ensure the Unity Group assists so that --------------------". The longer the file goes on, the more frequent and long-lasting the censored segments are, until finally...]



Doesn't paint a good picture.

[tiger_ken]

Hey, hey, hey, what's going on here Elma? Is this the encryption, or are the files damaged, or...?

[Ken puts a frustrated hand up to his face, sighing.]

It does rather sound like the Captain knew exactly who they were talking to.

[prismphantom]

Believe me, I tried accessing the rest of the audio! But it's tightly encrypted... and I have no idea what it would take in order to get full access to these files!



And it could turn ugly for us if word about this gets to the wrong people. If Captain Symphonia gets put under suspicion, then Selena and myself might as well. And unfortunately without knowing the context of why the Captain did this, anyone good enough at spin doctoring could paint it in a damaging light.

[tiger_ken]

'Earth's final line of defence actually allied to the enemy!'. Yeah, I can see that going down pretty bad.

But assuming your Captain was really on our side... What would say would be the reason for this?

[prismphantom]

Who knows? We hadn't seen him in so long... but I'd guess maybe he learned something important. Something dangerous that would make him think he was acting in the Earth's best interests...

1

[star_of_sad]

Selena...

I'm sorry. I, just...

[Setsuko is not sure whether to approach or give Selena room. She just... hovers in the distance, uselessly.]

I'm so sorry...

[prismphantom]

[Even if Setsuko thinks she's being useless, at a time like this even a single word of support's invaluable.]

... I know...

[Not many other people here can relate to what just happened, after all. Setsuko and Toby are the exception...]

[star_of_sad]

[Setsuko knows this feeling way too well, indeed. Which is why she can't say anything else. If she tries to, she might as well lose all her composure and break down crying.]