Mass sermons in the central plaza, just what is she thinking? I don't want to throw myself into the dirt before her every morning!
-Tarian Citizen
Months passed in relative quiet; the loweean CPUs moved on, Nepgear and Uni were usually found together in either of their nations, and IF continued her work.
She had to admit that working with K-Sha was quite different from working with Steamax or RED, though. The sniper's daily troubles gave her a good insight into the woes of a ranged combatant.
For all her skill, K-Sha still merely had gunpowder at her disposal. Even planeptunian technology did not yet allow for miniaturisation and safety as necessary to wield energy firearms or plasma weapons into battle, unless one was a specifically shielded android. Or had enough physical strength to wield a railgun into battle, as Maker Bungie was well known for.
No, K-Sha had neither of those. She could take a monster's sight from a kilometre away with pinpoint accuracy, but it was really only those shots that had any effect on the larger ones at all. For anything bigger than a human, she had to go into melee as well; even with the cost of her ammunition carried by the government, she only carried a limited amount of it at any time.
It was baffling how far melee combat and magic outdid the guns on their effectiveness at their level. Firearms were marvelous for clearing out small fry, but almost completely ineffective against the large and tenacious beasts a Maker faced constantly. Bullets could not be reinforced with Awakening either.
That was why K-Sha doubled as a swordswoman and had practiced with Falcom in the past. She was quite good at it as well, though IF could tell how far the aptly titled Sword Goddess stood apart from her fellow Lastationite.
Either way, they got along just fine and worked well together. Be it K-Sha supporting her from afar or both of them being up close and personal with the enemy, their synergy developed a lot in these few months.
With RED and Falcom having a blast in Lastation, the CPUs had decided to make the switch indefinite after clearing it with K-Sha, though she only heard about it recently. IF was a little sad about that, as it meant she would not see the bubbly redhead again anytime soon; it also made her happy at the same time, seeing that she did like to work with K-Sha. They got along as both were quite aloof, though the older woman appeared to be more subdued than IF herself. Nicer as well, in a general sense.
As June arrived, IF got used to her new circumstances and had honed the control of her Awakening to new heights. She could still reach higher, though her current level of skill finally felt at least decent.
One particular day, Neptune had called her up to the very top of Planeptower. IF was used to visiting her ruler's office at this point, having been there on many occasions before.
Noting the time as she ascended a single flight of stairs, the young woman found that she was two minutes early. Thus, instead of entering immediately, she waited until the clock struck two first. The first words she heard were as expected: "You know you can just come in, Isa. Why do you wait out there?"
They had this particular discussion many times before as well; IF's response was the same as always: "I felt like it." In truth however, she did it to annoy Neptune at this point; after rightfully assuming that the CPU monitored the area right in front of her office, she decided to do it on purpose every time she was early.
Neptune rolled her eyes and waved her Maker over; Histoire merely offered her a friendly smile before returning to work, though IF knew the Tome merely had a lot to do. Nepgear was not around, the Candidate currently staying in Lastation. Her empty chair moved while IF walked, offering itself to her as a seat right next to the ruler's desk; she took it.
What immediately caught her attention was the open Disco application, combined with a group-chat of four members and a folder filled with pictures of baby animals. A glance to Neptune revealed the purplette to be grinning as she quickly made to upload a quarter of that whole folder before minimising both it and Disco. "Not what I was meaning to show you, but it's fun to bother Noire and Blanc with those. They always look through them even if they hate that I distract them from their work."
IF wisely kept her mouth shut, though she could not help but roll her eyes. Neptune's antics were nothing new at this point, even those she had not yet seen before.
Seeing that no response was given, the purplette grinned and pulled up a bird's eye view of the central mountain range separating the north of Planeptune from Lastation; it was vast enough to even reach into Lowee and remained partly unexplored to this day. Difficult terrain in combination with the constant threat of monsters made human research teams hesitant to approach the behemoth. The CPUs could and probably had explored the mountain range somewhat, but they did not share their findings with anyone.
The reason IF knew which mountain range she looked at was the picture's title.
"Here we have the biggest and baddest mountains on the continent. I don't need to tell you that we know basically nothing about what's on top." IF shook her head, that much was common knowledge; she was tempted to quip about the deities knowing more than anyone else, but bit down on it for now. Neptune continued gleefully: "So guess what, some of our new explorer drones from Laya found a new cave at the foot of the central mountain. They didn't manage to get much input from a remote location, but it's been confirmed that the cave opens into some large caverns and an entire system of tunnels."
IF was starting to wonder now; she would not put it past her friend to call her up just to go on about natural phenomena for a few minutes. Neptune had done that before. "And what's so special about those tunnels and caverns?" Going by how wide the CPU's grin became, she figured it was not a trivial matter.
"Our explorers, Isa, found non-natural structures in there." The brunette's eyes widened slightly as the implications became clear, though Neptune cheerfully laid them out anyway: "And once they had pictures, the historians checked. Then they double-checked with Histy there." She waved toward the Tome, who ignored her after a quick glance to confirm she was not needed. "And much to everyone's surprise, our friendly fairy confirmed that those are tarian in origin."
IF winced at her tone and emphasis; it was well known that Histoire rarely confirmed anything about the past when asked, only volunteering information whenever they added to the peoples' safety. The knowledge to build vast mega-cities instead of spreading out the population, for example, was always freely given to prevent catastrophes.
"So I'm putting together a team to look into them. And you're going with them."
The young woman's thoughts ground to a screeching halt as Neptune's words registered; she was supposed to be on guard duty for an expedition into the mountains. Her confused look made the purplette giggle. "We spoke about it and decided you need a break. And seeing that you would just work anyway if we told you to take one, you're going on a trip instead."
Harsh, but IF could not deny it. She sighed nonetheless. "You could at least ask if I want to go, you know?"
"Nah, it's not like you have a choice in the first place." They stared at each other over that, though Neptune's grin never faltered. IF relented not long after, knowing not to argue that particular matter.
"Alright, fine. When is that team heading out?" As usual, her best option was to roll with it; at least exploration was an interesting prospect and a change of pace, so she could see some good sides on the matter.
Neptune ran through some different pictures as she explained: "Most preparations are already done, but it will still take a little bit; the set date is ten days from now, right after Summer Solstice." Which, in other words, meant that she would do this right after her first anniversary of being appointed as Maker. IF rolled her eyes at the most likely intentional choice.
. .
. .
An hour later, she had met up with Compa in one of their favourite cafes. Her friend listened with almost sparkling eyes and a serene smile as IF explained the matter and that she would be out of touch for a few weeks.
"This is so mean," the aspiring nurse finally told her with a mixture of pout and smile. "You get to actually see ruins of old Tari that nobody has seen in hundreds of years!"
"Right," IF answered slowly as memories of past conversations returned. "I forgot you're a history-nut." Now Compa's expression turned into a full pout, though it was mostly playful; IF paid it no mind. "Can you give me the rundown on Tari?"
Just like that, her friend returned to smiling. "Sure." She took a quick sip from her tea and thought. "Now where to start, ah!" IF faintly noted the fact some people at the surrounding tables were listening in, but did not see a reason to shoo them away. If the matter interested them, why bother?
"Okay, so, first thing is that Tari was a much older nation than Planeptune is right now." Compa held up two fingers. "From what research gathered, the Land of Blue Elegance lasted for over a thousand years, around twice as long as our nation exists. So far, all I read says that it fell about eight hundred years before the formation of Planeptune, putting the actual fall thirteen hundred years into the past."
Once again, the numbers were insane. IF knew it could take from a few years to a millennium for a new generation of CPUs to spawn after the last fell, but to have a period of twenty generations that would never even see divine silver light was a weird thing to imagine. She nodded nonetheless, making Compa continue.
"Next is that Tari was the only nation of its generation. Lady Blue Heart had no Candidate either, meaning she was the only CPU of her time and unified all of Gamindustri under her banner. Nobody knows what actually caused the nation's downfall, though. The best theory I saw was that a string of natural disasters hit them, but it does not explain the death of Blue Heart." Compa frowned weakly. "It's a mystery to this day, and the old accounts we found do not say anything about unusual occurences."
"Over a thousand years," IF mused. "I never thought anything but Sharicite could stand that long." She did not know anything about the downfall, but that point caught her interest.
Compa shrugged. "Tarian buildings are incredibly sturdy; they were built to last." That appeared to be it for her on that part, though IF wondered about the kind of materials the previous nation may have used; plasteel was a planeptunian creation and even she knew that Tari did not have an equivalent.
People continued to listen as Compa explained what she knew, so IF did the same and tried to commit as much as possible to memory.
. .
. .
The trip to Laya was uneventful, though IF did enjoy the view of the mountains she had from there. She did some sightseeing in the city, uncaring of the attention she gathered just by being present.
After some time, she noticed two familiar faces moving toward her. A stern man with dark pink hair and a gentle giant, both grinning once their eyes met; IF could not help but smile as well when she walked over to them. "Gabriel, André; what are you doing here?"
"Right now?" Her former team leader laughed and pointed at her. "Following the Chirper-explosion that's your presence in this city. You don't look to be in a hurry, so at least there's no monster horde coming." IF snorted, but nodded in agreement.
"Nothing like that, I'm not here to fight anything, at least not directly." She pointed at the looming mountains with her thumb. "I'm going that way starting tomorrow." Strangely, her old friends appeared baffled for a moment; when they exchanged glances, IF understood and sighed. "So are you, I guess?"
André nodded before laughing at the face she made. "I understand you were not informed of this either?"
Gabriel just clapped her shoulder, though. "Don't worry, it should be fine. At least my prayers were heard."
"What prayers?" Once she asked, her old team leader grinned at her.
"To work with someone competent again."