02/18/20
Here we go! A companion piece to "Xenoblade Chronicles Mira" this story takes place during the last bit of "Chapter 15: 2054" after Nagi suggests all of them go to the investigative team. This is what happens.
Originally, the group's sitdown with Ivan Birtwhistle was going to be a part of "2054" in a supercut type of format with Ivan asking the question once and all of them responding one after the other...but it made the chapter WAY too long so I broke it off and tackled them all one at a time and thus i think its better.
I don't believe this will be necessary for XCM but its a little side piece I wanted to write so here you go!
File 01: Colonel Elma
After months of fending off the Coalition's Investigation into what happened the day they assaulted the Lawless compound, the time finally came to sit down with the lead investigator and put it all out in the open.
Jaynix woke up not long ago and with that weight off her shoulders, Elma and those who accompanied her: Nagi, Kumon, Lyla and Flame, knew that they had to do this or the questions would never end.
So, this day found Elma and company heading to the Coalition headquarters. Stopping in front of the doors to the building, she took a deep breath, doing her best to calm herself knowing already what kinds of questions they would be facing. Feeling a hand on her shoulder she turned and gave a smile to Nagi.
Kumon, Lyla and Flame all gave her supportive nods. Knowing that Jaynix was under the watchful eye of Christoph and his security team was all the reassurance they needed.
All the other matters that they deemed more important than the investigation were settled, so all that remained was the sit down itself.
The five walked inside, one of the investigators spotted them and led them towards the interview rooms.
Standing at a split in the hallway he made note that there were three on one side and three on the other. Each of them would step into one and await the lead investigator, Ivan Birtwhistle. With that, he departed.
Elma, Nagi, Kumon, Lyla and Flame all exchanged looks. Elma addressing the latter two.
"Either of you do anything like this before?"
Lyla shook her head.
"No. The most I've done here in the Coalition or even the ECP headquarters is briefings and debriefs...I've never been part of an internal investigation."
"It's a witch hunt."
Kumon muttered. Flame looked to the man briefly before her gaze landed on Elma.
"I'm in the same boat...as you all know, I'm not military in any way, shape or form. I've had combat training with some arms while I was in the Academy but it was never my main focus…"
A small smile came to Flame's face.
"The most experience I have in this field is helping Jaynix with a bunch of the theoretical scenarios she had to study when it came to military planning, operational set ups and of course...dealing with fallout. I have an idea but that's it."
Elma placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You'll be fine. As long as we're honest with the answers, we'll be out of here before we know it."
Elma then looked to Nagi who was silent but she knew that he agreed with Kumon as well. There were forces at work seeking answers they could never have, so they changed their focus to seeking blame.
The group then broke apart, each individual entering one of the rooms and seating themselves.
It wasn't long before Ivan Birtwhistle stepped into Elma's room. Setting up his side of the table.
"How are you doing this afternoon, Colonel?"
"Can I be honest?"
"Of course."
"I was doing very well, then I got here. Now. I feel a little annoyed."
The man chuckled as he pulled out a binder containing the dossiers of those involved with the Lawless Incident as well as another that no doubt have reports on the victims from twelve years prior.
"What has you so annoyed, Colonel?"
"I wonder...perhaps it has something to do with you sending your goons after us moments following our recovery. Why so desperate?"
"An oversight."
"An oversight?"
Ivan sat down, taking a deep breath.
"Our orders came from the President and the other leading Coalition figures. The common consensus was that they wanted answers. Immediately. My comrades took the urgency to extremes and-"
"Your comrades? If I recall, you were among the vultures right outside of General Kumon's room the moment he awoke."
Ivan opened his mouth, Elma cutting him off.
"And! Christoph personally told you to leave only for you to ignore him...don't think you slinking away after Kumon made his declaration made you any less guilty than those under your command you claim to have no control over."
The pair remained silent as one of the other investigators, acting as transcriber entered the room and sat in the corner.
"All I can do is apologize, Colonel. Surely you can understand at least to an extent. Who holds power and command over each other when it comes to positions within the Coalition and ECP hierarchy is not exactly black and white."
At that moment, Elma remembered President Reeve telling her to just take her position at the head of everything and have everyone fall in line.
With a sigh, she nodded.
"Regardless, that doesn't make the actions your people took right."
"No. It doesn't."
Elma remained silent as Ivan adjusted his tie.
"That out of the way….may we begin, Colonel?"
Elma simply nodded, the man then drew out a blank sheet of paper and scribbled something down.
"We'll start off easy. Name and position for the record…"
"Elma. Colonel of the Coalition Heavy Armor Training Unit. Otherwise known as the Skelleton Crew."
Ivan nodded before asking the next question.
"When did you first meet Lao Huang?"
Elma cleared her throat.
"March 2028. Back then the Coalition and the ECP determined the materials necessary to construct the ark ship development platforms as well as the ships themselves. However, a rogue faction learned about this and sought to horde a source of those same materials. They then began asking for ludicrous amounts of money as payment for the supplies...if their demands were not met, they threatened to destroy the materials. I was sent on a mission to quell that faction and was deployed alongside Lao Huang and Doug Barret along with their combined units. It was on that mission that I first spoke to and fought alongside Lao."
The investigator nodded, continuing to jot down notes as he spoke.
"What was your impression of him?"
Elma tilted her head.
"He was quite young back then but he had a good sense of where he should be. He was devoted to the cause and skilled. The title of Master Sniper isn't just a title after all. The idea of having him on my side, as an ally. It left me optimistic."
The investigator continued to nod.
"A positive first impression. Between you meeting him in 2028 and then him betraying the Coalition in 2041, did you notice anything about him that changed? Anything off?"
Elma was silent for a bit.
"I wish I had...so much could've been prevented but he seemed the same as ever. Once he got married he was happier and his joy was immeasurable when Chenshi was born. The only time I noticed any change was late 2038...however what I saw was nothing more than grief and despair over the loss of his family. I didn't know back then that they were victims of what happened in Nantucket. I didn't learn that till recently."
The investigator looked up at her.
"What happened in Nantucket?"
Elma sighed. She had just told the others that they had to be honest. The Dark Matter experimentation was something that should never have been done and the existence of the Dark Matter sample was not something that could be shared publicly for all the questions it would raise. She had to find some middle ground.
"There was an accident. An explosion. Half the city and a large portion of the population was wiped out. Including Lao's family who was visiting at the time. It was that event that sent him on his downward spiral."
Birtwhistle crossed his arms.
"So you noticed his despair...the start of his descent."
"...I did. But I never imagined he'd go this far. Who could?"
The investigator nodded, writing down a handful of notes before flipping his page over.
"We understand you weren't present for the 2041 massacre."
"I wasn't."
Ivan looked up at her.
"Where were you?"
Elma thought back to that time.
"I was with a team inspecting the development of the White Whale's Lifehold Archives and Lifehold Core. Very important facets of the Exodus as I'm sure you know...once we heard the...explosions I was in charge of locking down the site in case it was a potential target. I didn't reach the Academy until well after the conflict had ended…"
Ivan nodded.
"Do you think your presence could have changed what happened?"
"I know it could have…despite Lao's skill...I believe I could have stopped him if I was there."
"Unfortunately you were not."
Elma narrowed her eyes.
"I was not involved with the massacre. I wish nothing more than to have been able to prevent it...not that wishing accomplishes anything more now…"
There was silence, Elma lost in a realm of what-ifs before Ivan spoke again.
"Moving on. When did you meet Jaynix Copeland?"
Elma shook her head.
"Is there nothing else you want to know about Lao?"
"We understand he was the one who killed many innocents and betrayed us all...but he's dead. Any more questions on the subject of him will eventually lead to nothing more than hypotheticals."
"And yet, completely unrelated to him, you believe Jaynix will give you answers?"
The man smiled.
"My job is to ask the questions. Yours is to answer. May we continue."
Elma leaned back in her seat as the man repeated the question.
"I met Jaynix in February of 2050. It's actually been four years since then, almost to the day. In the midst of all the expansion and stunning progress of Project Exodus I was quite worn out and decided to go for a walk outside our perimeter walls. Curiosity was truly my driving factor. The first encampment I visited was staffed by the Reapers. They were in the middle of training exercises. Sparring. That's where I met her."
"What did you think of her?"
Elma couldn't fight off a smile.
"She...was bold. Challenging me to a spar moments after meeting me. She was strong. Experienced and trained very well. Nothing but good things."
"Were you aware of the 2041 massacre when you met Jaynix?"
Elma nodded.
"I doubt there's a person who wasn't aware of it. One of our most decorated soldiers betrayed us that day. Everyone was hurting, confused and angry...I knew that only two people survived the massacre but I myself was focused on Lao."
"So you didn't know that Jaynix's mother and father both died that day? When you met Jaynix, you were unaware of that?"
Elma looked down.
"Yes...though I learned about it not long after...I was curious about Jaynix's military record and when I was looking into it...I learned what happened."
"So for the four years you've known Jaynix, you were aware of the effect the 2041 massacre had on her and yet you gave the okay to allow her deployment last year to deal with the man who killed her parents."
"Yes."
"You let an emotionally compromised wild card onto your team and onto the field of battle for one of the Coalition's most important missions since its formation."
"Jaynix is hardly a wild card. She's a devoted and dutiful soldier who contributes to the Coalition's mission every single day with everything she has."
The man nodded.
"And yet, because of her personal attachments to the tragedy and to Lao, and because you allowed her on the mission, you gave her the chance to murder Lao thus preventing his capture and us from learning his true motives."
Elma tilted her head.
"Murder?"
"She shot an unarmed, defenseless man. What would you call it?"
Elma thought for a moment.
"I'd call it righteous indignation."
The investigator leaned back in his seat, some surprise in his face.
"Explain."
"Lao allowed his pain and trauma to transform him into a monster unrecognizable by even those who were once closest to him. That man was a wild dog who broke free of his leash...in some ways killing him was a mercy and in others...it was exactly what he deserved."
"And you think Jaynix was in the right state of mind to make that call? To be judge, jury and executioner?"
Elma tapped her fingers on the desk.
"She was going to do it no matter what. And if she didn't do it, I would have. Jaynix did the right thing and no one could ever convince me otherwise."
Birtwhistle nodded once more.
"Do you think you could've stopped her?"
Elma recalled the moment before shaking her head.
"I was...I didn't even notice."
"You didn't?"
She sighed.
"Once it was clear that Lao was defeated...I took up one of my pistols with the intention of killing him. We had a short conversation…"
Ivan tilted his head.
"About what?"
"His justifications for trying to dismantle Project Exodus. The death of his family driving him all this way. He admitted to me that...he'd do it all again. He believed he was right."
Ivan sighed.
"I see...what does Project Exodus have to do with his family? It was an accident that killed them, correct?"
Elma thought for a moment, speaking quickly so Ivan couldn't tell.
"He believed the 'accident' was negligence. On top of that he disliked the idea behind Mimeosome technology. He believed once we went there, we were no longer humans. He seemed to want us to die as humans as opposed to...something else."
Elma couldn't quite tell what the expression on Ivan's face was. Shaking his head he flipped the page once more.
"Lao aside. I have to ask, what action do you think we should take with the Corporal? There has been a lot of talk regarding dismissal."
Elma sighed, right back to questions about Jaynix.
"If I may be honest and blunt. Dismissing her would be a gigantic mistake. Jaynix is an irreplaceable asset. Ending her service now would not benefit anyone. If the only thing we have to worry about is her killing unrepentant traitors...then I have yet to hear a good reason for allowing her dismissal."
"I see...you told me that you had a gun in your hand, ready to kill Lao when Jaynix took the shot instead. I have to ask, would you truly have done it Colonel? If not to Lao to someone else who you believed deserved it? Would you forgo the rules, the regulations, the laws, to deliver your justice onto others?"
Elma took a deep breath.
"I would."
"I see."
Standing, the investigator gathered his things.
"Is that all?"
"I don't believe I have to ask for a recount of the events after you and your company entered the base, rescued the hostage and engaged Lao and Torrez do I?"
"It was all in my after action report."
Birtwhistle nodded as he finished with his supplies.
"I trust your word...so with that, yes. We are done. I have four other individuals to get to after all."
Elma raised an eyebrow.
"You aren't going to come knocking on my door at two in the morning looking for more answers are you?"
"That depends on what the others tell us."
Birtwhistle looked to Elma, asking one more question.
"Is the Corporal awake?"
Elma remained silent as the transcriber stood and left the room, headed for the next one.
"We're no longer on the record so feel free to lie to me if you wish."
"When she's ready, she'll be here. It's her choice."
"Very well."
With that, the man left. Elma closed her eyes. Of course they spent more time asking about Jaynix than they did Lao. What they learned about a dead man would ultimately be irrelevant to the matter at hand.
She also couldn't help but recognize that she had just lied to the internal investigation team. It was also extremely unlikely that Birtwhistle would ever learn the truth. Her identity, the Dark Matter and its role in the death of Lao's family were all things kept under tight wraps for reasons that she herself...justified.
Yet did those kinds of actions really make her all that different from Lao? Elma shook her head, she knew she wasn't going around killing innocents for revenge but she also knew the decisions the ECP had moved forward with and the ethical nature of Project Exodus was so questionable. So much so, Lao turned against it and Doug chose to remain on Earth until the end.
With a heavy sigh, Elma lowered her head onto the desk. These questions, these doubts. She had told Doug that she wanted nothing more than to find a better answer. A better way. But there was none, time was running out. This was how it had to be.
Elma remained there for a few minutes before standing up and leaving the room. As she did she couldn't help but think about the entire investigation and more importantly, why it happened.
President Reeve had assured her that he, personally wasn't behind the order for the investigation but other heads of state wanted it. Why would they push this investigation through in the first place? It's true that they were the ones that wanted Lao alive but everyone else was aware that the odds of that happening were minimal.
The answer came to Elma almost immediately. They or at least some of them had to be involved with everything and wanted Lao captured to know if he gave any of them away.
Out in the hall, Elma made sure she was alone before pulling out her datapad, prepared to make a call only to see she had a message from President Reeve.
Opening it up, she found one of the pieces of information he had promised her: Benton's location.