April 29, SY 2150
It was quiet at Rüstkammer Base. Almost too quiet. But the Eighty-Sixth Strike Package had been whittled down to just about one hundred Processors, having taken great losses against the Legion in the Charité Underground Labyrinth. It was no surprise that it was quiet. The Processors had lost many comrades and friends, no one felt like being loud.
Shin had been cleared medically the day prior, and promptly returned to service, first checking on the Processors in SPEARHEAD, before working his way through the other Squadrons' ranks. He even went so far as to check on the maintenance team, and the Vanadis crew, to make sure they were alright.
The very last person he had to check on, was his Commanding Officer, the First Tactical Commander, or TACCOM, Colonel Milizé.
When he made it to the Hangar where the Colonel's office was, on an upper floor, he was somewhat unsurprised to find that the door was shut. There was a handwritten sign, however, taped to the door, reading in hand-written script; "Please knock, and watch for the cat."
Shin blinked once at the message, before knocking at the door.
There was a noise that came from his ear-piece. "Shin? Is that you?"
"Yes, Colonel. It's me."
"Watch for TP when you come in." She instructed, and the resonance cut. Shin carefully, and steadily turned the doorknob, and then inched the door open, making sure that the black-and-white cat wasn't about to dart out into the hallway where he stood. He quickly entered the room, and shut the door behind him. TP, the cat, was asleep on one of the two couches in this office-space side of Colonel Milizé's quarters, and didn't seem at all disturbed by Shin's knocking at the door, or Lena standing up from her desk, with a small smile on her face. She set her Para-RAID down against her desk, and moved across the space, motioning at one of the couches, while she sat in the one opposite it. "It's good to see you cleared for duty, Shin. How are you feeling?"
Shin gave a small smile at the use of his more personal, less informal nickname. "I'm feeling alright. I just came by to check on you, after the operation." He said, sitting down on the couch opposite Lena and setting the tablet that he carried down on the table between them. TP woke up as soon as he did. The cat promptly recognized Shin, and stood up, walking over to him and mewed to greet him. He gave it a little pat on the head.
"I'm fine. I was just working on finishing up paper work for the mission. Thank you for submitting your report, despite being in the hospital the past couple days." She said, pleasantly.
"Not a problem. It wasn't like I had anything better to do."
"I can imagine."
"But that's not the only thing I came here to talk to you about, Lena." He used the nickname for her, rather than her rank and last name. This was something less to do with the military, or rather, something that needed a bit more delicacy than the formalities between a Captain and a Colonel would imply.
"It's about that new Legion unit that Second Lieutenant Mercury destroyed, isn't it?" Lena said, her small smile disappearing. Shin nodded gravely. "Our automated Scavengers, and subsequent sweeps of the Underground revealed that the chassis was still present. Including the 'bits' that Lieutenant Mercury engaged and destroyed. The Chassis was deemed inoperable, and was retrieved by the Scavengers. Currently the Chassis is en-route to the Alliance of Wald's research facilities. But that's all I know about its current status."
"I didn't hear any voices coming from it, after it was taken down…" Shin said. His eyes quickly darting to the western side of the room, before looking back at Lena. There was a solemn moment where Lena realized what the look that he gave was. The ever-constant beating of the voices of the Legion and their Sheepdogs following the Charité operation. "But that doesn't mean that there aren't more of this 'new-type' Legion unit out there."
"Do you think that we'll find another one? I read your report about the High-Mobility Type, the Phönix… But I can hardly believe that it managed to escape from you."
"When it comes to the Legion, I'd find it hard to believe that there aren't more of this new-type 'Weißschatten' unit out there." Shin affirmed.
"Which means we'll need to evaluate how Lieutenant Mercury managed to defeat it… And train the Strike Package accordingly."
Shin sighed at this. "There's the problem." He picked up his tablet again. Tapping something into it, before handing it to Lena. He let Lena read the first few lines of the file that he had opened, and let her look up at him in bewilderment before he explained further. "Lieutenant Mercury's medical team in the hospital, her mental health support staff here on base, her mechanical team, and CALIBARN's deputy have all petitioned for her to be given a discharge. At the same time, she's also put in for retirement from her post. Not a transfer. A retirement from the military. She's even waived the benefits that are associated with her current rank if it means getting her request."
"Have any other former-Eighty-Six requested the same?"
"No. Just Lieutenant Mercury."
Lena looked back down at the tablet, reading further.
"You read her report, right, Lena?"
"Yes, and I heard what you all did during the operation. That the new-type Legion was Captain Miorine Rembran." Lena sighed. "What do you think, Shin?"
"About what? Her retirement?" Shin shrugged. "I approved it already," Lena starts to say something, "But I knew that you would also have to, as well as Colonel Wenzel, as well as Major General Altner, and the Chief of Staff to approve her early retirement, considering the circumstances. But she's also an Eighty-Six. Anyone who isn't one of us, has been trying to get us to leave the Military since we first signed-on. From a tactical standpoint, I don't think its a good idea to have a Squad Captain who doesn't want to be here, or doesn't deem herself suitable to lead or fight. I also think that if she wants to leave, considering the life she has had. She should be allowed to. That's why I already gave my approval. But didn't promise yours, the Colonel or the Generals'." Shin explained.
"But what about a personal level? We need to find someone to fill in as CALIBARN Squad Captain." Lena said, sinking into her seat a bit. "I suppose that First Lieutenant Jeturk would be an obvious candidate, but…"
"I think, personally, I'd hate to see her leave. She's one of the best Processors in the Strike Package. I don't think that many others could've held up against that new-type Legion the same way she did. Much less defeat it. But I also don't think that we should force someone to fight, just because they're good at it. And besides, there's obviously something there between the two, that the death of her Handler has caused such a lasting impression on her that several of her support staff recommended this. Besides, we don't know how close both the Captain and Lieutenant were — maybe that has something to do with why she was found crying beside it."
"I understand… And I agree with you… I'm still just caught off guard by this. Lieutenant Mercury and Miorine must've been a lot closer than I expected them to be for her death to be affecting her this much."
"Suletta and I talked… That's the name she chose, by the way — she said that you had told her back in the Republic, before the Morpho, that Captain Rembran was MIA. It didn't affect her that much then, did it?"
"No, I didn't think so." Lena said. "But hearing the voices of the dead? That's something entirely different than not knowing at all."
Shin nodded, "I can understand that."
"What about you? With the Sheepdogs?"
"Its… More difficult than before. But they're much further away now, so it's not as bad."
"That's good… Take whatever time you need! We won't be moving out for our next mission until we're able to replenish our ranks anyways."
Shin nodded again at this. "Understood, but I'll keep our teams working. Please let me know when and if Lieutenant Mercury's request is approved." He said, standing up — despite TP's mewing protestations.
"I will. Thank you, Shin." Lena stood up as well, handing Shin back his tablet.
"Of course. Let me know if there's anything I can do in the meanwhile." Shin said, giving TP a scratch behind the ears as he walked for the door.
The cat didn't move, yet watched him silently leave the room and shut the door as he left.
May 10, SY 2150
It took longer than Guel Jeturk would've liked for it to set in, to realize that this was the first time that he had set foot inside District One in a decade.
Guel Jeturk, the eldest son of his family, would be the only survivor of it.
Guel Jeturk, the newly-promoted captain of CALIBARN squadron, of the Eighty-Sixth Strike Package, wouldn't wear his uniform today.
Guel Jeturk, would ignore the looks of scorn given to him by the survivors in District One, as he strode down the street, hands in his cargo pant pockets, as he searched for who he had come here for.
There was no need for him to carry his Federacy-issued Sidearm, although the armory officer had reminded him that he was allowed to, for 'personal defense', as a former Eighty-Six. Guel had given that officer a look, and simply finished filling out the form to check his sidearm into the armory while he was on his couple-day-long leave.
His Iola hair ruffled slightly in the southerly wind that blew down the street and against his back, and before long disappeared as he rounded a corner, hugging a building that at a quick side-glance, seemed to have been a dress shop at some point. Although now, it was empty, most of the windows boarded up, and the few that weren't, revealed an empty sales floor, with not even the tables or counters left standing, having been repurposed in the reconstruction effort.
He hadn't attended the monthly briefing on the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts of the Republic. He, frankly, didn't give a shit. The Republic had taken all but his dignity from him, and for that, even if it wasn't the individual Alba that he passed on the street, he couldn't bring himself to do more than what he had set out to do today. He had no doubt that in a century's time — provided humanity survived that long — that the progeny of the Republic would still be paying for the crime of their ancestors, but for the time being, those ancestors were still alive, still breathing in front of him. And for that? He couldn't care less. They were human, just like him, but that didn't mean that they did or didn't stand by while he and his were massacred.
But he didn't think about even that as he walked down the quiet street.
It had been less than a couple weeks since her honorary discharge had gone through, and no one had heard anything from Suletta Mercury since even before that point. Even when he had gone to his superior officers, Colonel Milizé and Captain Nouzen and asked about her, they had simply deferred him to the next highest officer. And Colonel Wenzel had approved his leave remotely, while she was back in Sankt Jeder for a meeting or conference or something like that, and he didn't particularly feel like hounding his Brigade Commander directly over a fellow Processor and Eighty-Six. Especially not when he could use his military access to get to the one place he assumed she'd have gone anyways.
At the end of this block, the crosswalk led to a pedestrian bridge. As he crossed that bridge, his eyes wandered up and down the river that the bridge spanned. The river was still veritably littered with Legion unit husks and destroyed Juggernaut alike. Further up the river, he could see a larger bridge being repaired, just from a quick glance, it almost looked like that lift bridge's mechanisms had been shot at by the Juggernauts, likely in an attempt to slow down the Legion's advance.
Obviously, it hadn't worked in the long run.
On the other side of the pedestrian bridge, the buildings began to peel away one by one, and led towards something that looked more like a park, but Guel knew better. Inside its fence, there were no families out and about, no one occupying the space at all, despite the fact that the city was safe from Legion attacks and even had been cleared of any unexploded ordinance from the battles that had raged in its bounds. Cars on the street passed him by, going both directions, and he paid them no mind at all. He walked along the iron of the fence for a ways, coming eventually to the gates of the fence. The gate, made of the same iron as the fence itself, was open to the street level. He entered the gates, not paying any attention to the words in bent iron above the gate.
"War Dead Memorial"
There was a paved path through the grass and trees that bordered the memorial as much as the fence did. Eventually, the path split in two, and left the trees behind, letting a small canal of water flow between the two paths as they diverged. The flat ground he walked on turned into a slope, and the path he walked became terraced, forming into steps that every few meters, he'd have to step up to. In the middle of the canal, black marble slabs were inlayed with each terraced step. Some of them had chunks missing — undoubtedly where the rounds of Juggernauts or Legion had impacted it. These impact marks were jagged, and the cracks around them ran deep through the material, in some places, he wondered how it was that the marble hadn't completely shattered.
The sun was beginning to beat down as it continued its arc into the sky. But the breeze on his face was still cool and damp with dew, and reminded him just how early it still was. He took a deep breath as he continued walking along — eventually coming to marble slabs that had names engraved into them.
Names he didn't recognize, but still had the flair of being the names of Alba — people who were in the Republic's military, who had died fighting the Legion, trying to repel them from bounds of the Gran Mur. He didn't know where the deaths from the Large-Scale Offensive started, and where the ones from before the Gran Mur's construction began, if he had even made it that far at all.
The names went on and on. He watched and read them as he passed by, his hands still in his pockets as he walked. He felt nothing towards these names. The gravity of the number of deaths just in the military alone, not setting in. This would be something that he didn't quite realize, and wouldn't until later — but that the reason that gravity didn't weigh him down as he passed by each and every one of those names — was because he hadn't completely accepted that these officers and soldiers could've actually been human, the same as him.
His mind still held onto the notion that each and every Alba of the Republic wasn't human. That even these war dead were still nothing more than White Pigs.
He glanced forward, and saw a flash of red hair not that far away from the steps that he walked up. He took his eyes away from the names engraved, and slowed his pace as he approached the figure, sitting in front of a marble slab, on one of the steps, with her legs crossed, and wearing dark clothes as if in mourning.
The pyrope-haired girl didn't look at him. She didn't take her eyes away from the name that she was reading on the memorial. He glanced at the name that she watched, and it didn't ring familiar to him. How could she, a Colorata like him, know one of the names on this memorial?
He knew the answer if even the name wasn't familiar to him.
"Hello, Lieutenant." The pyrope-haired girl said as he approached, not looking up from the memorial.
"How'd you—" He starts to say, before realizing how pointless of a question it is. It was his footsteps. It always had been how she could tell it was him before he had even announced himself.
He stands next to the form of Suletta Mercury, as she sits in front of a memorial bearing a name that he doesn't recognize.
They don't talk for several minutes. Guel looking around at the various names and ranks on the memorial. Reading over the same one that she reads several times, and yet the name seems none the more familiar to him. If it weren't for the circumstances, he probably wouldn't have ever realized who that name belonged to.
"She meant a lot to you, huh?" He said.
Suletta nods.
Guel sits down on the step, not next to her, but nearby — stretching out his legs on the next lowest step, and looking back the way he came. "Why'd you leave?" He asked.
"You know why, Guel."
"'Because I can't bear to return to the place that took her away.'" He recited. It was what she'd told him when he'd asked, the day before she left the Rüstkammer Base and returned to the Republic. He thought what she had said every day since she'd left the military and Giad behind. "But is that really it?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" She responded, standing up from her spot in front of the memorial.
Guel stood up as well, still not facing her as he watched the other path, a small family walked down the hill, their child's head bobbing in and out of view from behind the monuments as he jumped from step to step. Guel watched the silver-haired boy go, not feeling much emotion one way or another has his mother chastised the boy for being so lighthearted in a solemn place for remembrance.
"Because," Guel said, sighing. "Why waste all this energy on a single White Pig who was nice to you? It's not like there weren't other people who were nice to you. It's not like there weren't other people who treated you—"
"Treated me like what, Guel?" The Witch asked. Her voice shook as she spoke.
"Like a human." Guel's words come out more like an accusation than they do anything else.
"And what's so wrong with that?"
"Because ultimately, she didn't do shit for you." Guel said, digging his hands back into his pockets. "She didn't put an end to the situation you were in. She didn't give you a name, or even your own name back to you—"
"How do you know that?"
"Because you only decided on a name after you killed her ghost." Guel said, turning around. "That isn't the same as her giving it to you."
Maybe Guel was right — maybe this wasn't her real name. But it was real enough. Something that she could hold on to, something that was her own. Her name was something that had been given to her. And an accusation to the contrary made her tremble in anger. "You don't know that." She said, her voice more shaky than before.
"Why don't I?" Guel asked.
"Because you didn't hear what I heard."
"The hell does that mean?"
"After I took down that goddamned machine… I heard her voice, Guel."
"That's not anything new." Guel snorted. "Captain Nouzen reported hearing the same voice from many different Legion before the Sheepdogs came about."
"This was different… She—" Her voice cut, still shaking. "She talked to me…"
"That's impossible."
"You said the same thing when Captain Nouzen told you about the Black Sheep — and look at us now. We've both heard the voices for ourselves. Killed those voices." Suletta said, still staring at that name on the monument. "But that doesn't discount what I heard, what I saw."
"You're telling me that a ghost talked to you."
"She told me how I looked like a girl she knew. How much she missed her. How much she hoped that girl was still alive. She told me a name, one that I didn't realize I knew. One that I hadn't thought of in years."
"Bullshit. What're the goddamned chances?" Guel said, realizing what Suletta was talking around without ever being told what it was.
"I found her father, you know? He recognized me…" Suletta said, looking up from the monument, towards Guel. There were tears streaming down her face, and yet she still had a smile. A pained smile — one that was so wracked with sorrow that it was impossible to tell if she realized that she was smiling at all. "He survived all this… And he showed me a picture… One from my childhood."
She pulled something from her pocket with a shaky hand, and reached it towards Guel, who took it.
On the faded film, there were two young girls — one obviously an Alba who is smiling — a deep smile that only a child could make. The other is a girl with the bright red hair of a Pyrope, and the eyes of a Celesta. This second girl is grinning, and has her arm wrapped around the first girl. In her grin — she's missing one of her front teeth. But more markedly, the second girl has in her hair, a hairband. One keeping her hair out from her face, but in the same markings and coloration as the one Suletta now has in her hair.
"This is…?" Guel said, looking up at Suletta, and realizing that the hairbands are the same.
"This hairband was a gift from my mother — something that she gave me when I refused to cut my hair…" Suletta said, reaching up and touching it as it rests on her head. "I don't remember that picture being taken… I barely remember that girl, or the girl I used to be, but I still have this... The only thing I remember my mother by."
The pieces fit together, they all make sense. But Guel can't seem to accept this. He can't seem to wrap his mind around what it is that he's seeing, and what it is that he's being told. His face contorts in confusion.
"That's how—"
"I remembered my name... I didn't pick it at random. I remembered."
Guel reached back between them, handing back the photograph. Suletta takes it, and tucks it back into her pocket.
"Fuck." Guel said.
"Yeah." Suletta responds, understanding the meaning behind Guel's proclamation. The weight of his acceptance of what's happened.
"…What are you going to do now?" Guel asked, looking at the Monument, at the name that Suletta is so fixated on.
"I'm going to keep rebuilding this country." She says, more confidently.
"Because it's all that she fought for?"
"Something like that."
"You're dead set on this, aren't you?"
Suletta nods.
"Then far be it from me to stop you. You'll do it with or without my approval anyways. Not that you care one way or another. Just… Keep yourself safe, okay?"
"You too."
Guel turned around, and started down the steps, back the way he came. No more words are exchanged between himself and his former combat commander. Between him and the Witch.
Suletta watched as Guel left her here, keeping an eye on him through the corner of her eye. Her eyes fixated on the name in the monument in front of her. There was nothing more that she wanted to, or could say to him, or to the ghost that once bore the name engraved in the marble in front of her.
She whispers to herself, knowing those words, and knowing them well. The mantra her mother had taught her — that she had taught her best friend growing up. What it means to win, what it means to lose. And what it means to keep moving forward in spite of whatever it was that stood in one's way. "Move forward, huh?" She closed her eyes for a moment, before turning down the stairs, and beginning her walk towards the muster area for the reconstruction effort, leaving behind the name in marble. She will be back tomorrow, and the day after. But for today? Suletta Mercury will keep moving forward, even if it kills her — because that's what Miorine Rembran would want for her.