The gift

[srwu_mods]

[1]
Unity Group's finance-related problems have eased over time. Nowadays they are pretty much gone and situation is back to how it was before.

But now, you get a reminder why the problems started in the first place.


"Holy crap! It's like Christmas came early!"

Loni's here. And so is his new unit. In the hangars, equipped with twin beam katanas, stands a stark white unit. The top of the line one of a kind prototype - the BrightSaber.

[2]
What about the old FightSaber? It's still being used, as a matter of fact someone is taking it through a training course right now. It jumps from cover to cover swiftly, shooting down target drones with gravity blasts while avoiding their counter fire.

Once the course is over, the time and score displayed are impressive. Browsing the results database would show that despite the unit being underequipped compared to its loadout from before, it scored higher than Loni ever did. But he's not the pilot this time.


"Yes, that's acceptable. I can work with this."

Ilinka is.


"Nice, Ilinka. This is a much better ride than a crappy old Gespenst. Now you won't need rescuing all the time anymore!"


"..."

By the way, Desta's nowhere around. Maybe the third of the Gavin party is not in mood for Christmas spirit.

Comments

1)

[genericprotagonist]

I guess it might feel like that for some people.

[Raleigh looks up at the Brightsaber. He was honestly wondering who the machine belonged to and now he found out. He keeps a somewhat friendly smile on his face.]

Loni Gavin right?

[srwu_mods]

"That's me!" He's in high spirits.

[genericprotagonist]

Yeah I figured.

[Raleigh nods to himself as he now turns to regard Loni.]

Raleigh Beckett. Yancy told me quite a bit about you before Anchorage.

[It stung a little. But he owed it to his brother to do this since he couldn't anymore.]

[srwu_mods]

"Oh yeah. You guys were Rangers, before... yeah. Sorry about that."

"But now I'm curious what he said about me."

[genericprotagonist]

That you're an arrogant, self centered, selfish glory hog. And trust me, we've met plenty of those.

[The smile on Raleigh's face fades and becomes an extremely stern look.]

I'm guessing Yancy might have made an understatement, because I didn't hear you even say anything about how badly the budget cuts near crippled the Unity Group to get you your new toy.

Or maybe you didn't care about how rough everyone had it here.

2

[actuallyselfish]

Up on a nearby gantry, Dido crushes an empty soda can in her hands. "The Hell with this." She mutters, and lowers her cherry-picker down on the ground.

"Yo, Ilinka!" Dido says, walking over tucking two clipboards under her arm. "Could I get you away from Mr. Buzzkill here and talk to you about FightSaber's specs a moment?"

[srwu_mods]

"Buzzkill?"


"No, it is alright. What do you need to know?"

[actuallyselfish]

"Hold on a sec." Dido pulls out one of the clipboards and hands it to Loni.

"Your new unit's LightSaber, right?" Dido says blandly. "Could you be a dear and fill these forms out? This one's for hanger registration, that's a liability waiver...this one's is your medical insurance slip; you'll definitively need that! Sign all these with a pen and get them back to me, okay?"

Loni hopefully banished for the time being by paperwork, Dido turns to Ilinka. "Just wanted to say, congratulations on acing the flight test." She says softly. "Also, how're you doing?"

[srwu_mods]

"BrightSaber!" Apollonius stares at the stack of papers in his hands.
"What is this about? I'm not going to..."


"Loni, it will only take a few moments. I will be back soon."

"I am good. Why would you be concerned for me?" Ilinka asks while in private.

2

[kill_all_vagans]

... If it's a better ride why did we need to finance a replacement?

[Yeah, Flit's a little peeved. Seeing the BrightSaber's been bugging him, and he has a huge roll of design schematics under his arm for some reason.]

[srwu_mods]

"Because FightSaber's not enough to take on those cultist freaks, obviously! You can't just compare it to a Gespenst, that's like, bottom of the barrel."

[kill_all_vagans]

Gespensts aren't-

... You're talking about one of the most reliable mass-produced machines the ESUN has! And being here I've even seen weaker machines like Genoaces do amazing things! There's tons of pilots who would love to trade up to a Gespenst!

[Not that Flit's going to bring up how helpful the DODS Guns have been now. Or that his design plans -plans that could've entered testing if it weren't for this "BrightSaber" gobbling up funding- were for a successor model that would be more versatile. Loni wouldn't even understand the distinction between raw power and adaptability.]

[srwu_mods]

"Maybe it's okay for scenarios that normal pilots find themselves in, but for fighting those Good Men guys, a mass produced unit isn't enough."

2

[brought_it_back]

...You're rather skilled.

[srwu_mods]

"... Yes." Ilinka admits after a momentary hesitation.


"It'd be weird if she wasn't."

[brought_it_back]

...

[srwu_mods]

"Eh? Something's wrong?"

1

[sakimori]

[One particular idol-slash-Symphogear-user is staring at this new machine.

She looks more like she's in disbelief than anything though.]

[srwu_mods]

"It's pretty awesome, huh? Two plasma katanas? What will they think of next!"

[sakimori]

[Just this icon now.]

That's not it.

[srwu_mods]

"What is it, then?"

1

[tiger_ken]

...Yeah, Christmas.

[Ken's staring up at the machine. Well, he hadn't exactly been entirely averse to the notion of Loni - though more particularly, his team as a whole - getting stronger, but considering everything...]

Please tell me its got more than a fancy pair of swords.

[srwu_mods]

"Of course it does. It's got weapons up the wazoo, these are just the crown jewel!"

[tiger_ken]

Such as...? Because Unity Group had to shave a lot of money for you to have just this one unit. That, whilst others like Solaris and the PPDC have had to work off a shoestring budget for a while now.

[srwu_mods]

"There're also high powered graviton launchers, and physical weaponry if that's not enough."

Loni sighs.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Everyone told me already and they act like if I knew this will take money from you and I did it on purpose. I needed a strong unit to defeat the Good Men cultists, alright?"