2023-05-29: Fractured Spirits
- Cast: Marida Cruz, Suberoa Zinnerman
- Where: Ra Mari II - Zinnerman's Quarters
- Date: U.C. 0097 05 29
- Summary: The Garencieres Team are hurting after Dakar, but none more than their Captain. Marida Cruz reaches out to Zinnerman, and together they gather enough strength to push forward.
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
The shockwaves of the battle of Dakar are still echoing through the Ra Mari II and the Garencieres Team are feeling the worst of it.
Tomura has thrown himself into servicing the mobile suits they recovered from their old freighter, trying to push them beyond their factory specs even by a small amount. Gilboa is running through possible attack vectors on the Vist Foundation's Garuda that would let them slip in unnoticed - and coming up short. Each of the other team members distracts themselves from grieving by becoming obsessive about their particular skillsets - except Kwani, who is on the ground in Orb, investigating the ship markets.
Each of them, that is, except their Captain.
Suberoa Zinnerman has not left his quarters since the battle. He is eating; but he has not shown his face beyond any official business with Captain York or other high-ranking officials of the Three Ships Alliance or Sleeves.
So Flaste Schole, the team's second-in-command, seeks out Marida.
"You should talk to the captain," he says as he takes her aside. "It's my responsibility to keep him going, but he's not listening to me. He might listen to you."
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida had likewise been more reserved than usual since the battle, though the crew would have seen her more than they would Zinnerman. When she had been seen, she was furiously flipping through the debrief of Dakar. It was during one of her rare appearances that Flaste found her.
She wasn't particularly in the mood to talk to anybody at the moment, let alone the Captain that she had failed, but she acknowledged her duty to make sure that he was fit for his duties. "I will...see what I can do."
And so she found herself at the door to Zinnerman's quarters. She had never been in his quarters before, even on the Garincieres, and it took a second for her to steel herself before knocking on the door with the back of her hand. "Master, it's me. I'm checking in on your condition."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
Zinnerman's quarters are relatively spartan - the only decorations are on his desk, next to his workstation - a photograph, and a second item that he's currently holding in his hands while sat there, turning around and around and gazing at it - a 1/14th scale model of a 0079 Sealance high-speed transport boat, its traditional livery of blues replaced with a steel-blue coat decorated with clumsy orange stripes. Marida's sharp eyes can pick out, even at this distance, a crack around its bridge tower, and the marks of careful repair.
His gloves are starting to fleck the paint off the toy.
When Marida speaks up, he sets the Sealance down on the desk. "Marida. I am..." No, he's not fine. "I am not unwell."
Not physically, at any rate.
"How are your injuries? You fought hard out there."
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida notes the relative sparseness of the room as much similar to her own quarters. It was remarkable just how much she and the Captain had in common. Perhaps that's why they worked so well together. Perhaps it was just him rubbing off on her after who knows how many years together.
"I am..."
Neither was she.
"...likewise not unwell. I just had some scrapes and bruises. Nothing I haven't dealt with before."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
Marida phrases things the same way he did, and Zinnerman grunts in recognition. She's hurting too. "I see. How are the crew?"
"... Flaste sent you to check up on me, huh?" He has been stonewalling his second-in-command, after all.
He grunts. "Fine." He glances down at the photograph on his desk. He seems to draw on it as a source of strength.
"... It has been some time since we've had a mission go that badly. How are you handling it?" As the field operative deployed, she must be feeling something about how Dakar went - but there's no cast of blame in his voice; he is inquiring about her mental health first and foremost.
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Zinnerman wouldn't even need to cast the blame himself. Marida would be doing plenty of that to herself. Sure, they had had failures before, but very few to this magnitude. And she had gone down so easily too...She grips her arm with her other hand and casts her eyes down to the floor.
"...I'm sorry, Master." Her voice quivers as she apologizes, a crack of emotion she had never let any of the Garincieres see, and a shakiness that Zinnerman had probably not heard since the fateful day their paths crossed.
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
Zinnerman shakes his head.
"... It's not your fault, Marida. I'm the Captain; the fault for a failed operation is mine. I didn't anticipate the extent of our enemy's information advantage, and I underestimated their ruthlessness. Our readiness was insufficient, and I'm the one who has to take responsibility for that."
And here he is, sitting at his desk staring at his daughter's toy when there's work that needs doing.
"They laid the perfect trap, and we stumbled blindly into it."
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
"They're as close to the Box as they've ever been, and we're adrift in empty seas." Marida's mind ruminates on what exactly they could do, but nothing comes to her. Without the Unicorn, they have no defense against the Banshee, even with the amount of Psychoframe in the Kshatriya. And heaven forbid they end up doing to Banagher what they did to Leina...
"It's frankly hard for me to see what our path forward is."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
He grunts, looking down. "It looks impossible. If we make a move..."
Leina dies. Dies fighting them. Dies believing the garbage Martha Vist Carbine has had stuffed into her head. Dies as a weapon, not as a human being.
Dies like Marida would have, if he hadn't found her.
Banagher would never forgive them.
"Marida... what do you want to do?"
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Once again, Zinnerman asks her what she wants. It's been exceptionally hard for her to start thinking this way rather than following orders. But...it feels right.
"I want to bring Leina back. She shouldn't be a weapon. She was never given the choice. She deserves to be happy."
The grip on her arm tightens. You're talking about Leina. Nobody else.
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
"... Agreed. That girl has... been too kind to our crew for us to ignore our plight." She made a special effort to get his entire crew's families off Palau and onto the Ra Mari II. Every single one of them is no longer bound to the Sleeves asteroid base - free to chart their own course, once they have the means again.
Not to mention her efforts to reunite Marida with those of her sisters who survived.
Those kinds of gifts are too precious to ever be adequately repaid.
"Banagher and Mineva, too - and the other girls the Foundation has captured." The comm chirps, and Zinnerman answers instinctively. "Go ahead." Tomura's voice comes through. "Captain! You answered."
"What is it, Tomura?"
The Team's mechanic answers. "... I finally cracked the Banshee comms encryption. I think we have a way in to the Garuda's systems, if we can get to it. Kwani checked in, too - he's finally found us a ship."
"... Good. Class?"
"... Garencieres-class."
"Heh. Sentimental fool."
"You're one to talk, Captain."
"You talking back to me, Tomura?"
"N-no sir! Do you have orders?"
Zinnerman thinks, and looks to Marida. "Not at this time. Make sure you've got the encryption solved fully and tell Kwani to bring the ship back. I have a few things to take care of first."
"Understood, Captain." The comms click off.
"... Marida. You are likely to have to fight miss Ashta, if we pursue this. Are you prepared for that?"
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida silently listens to the conversation with Tomura. A new ship...the Ra Mari II was a fine vessel, and their crew were incredibly gracious to let them aboard, but Marida had never been able to shake the feeling that they didn't belong here. Having a new Garincieres would do some good.
It would at least have more room for the Kshatriya than the Ra Mari's hangar.
Her hand drops from her arm at her captain's question. Of course she would have to fight Leina. She was just about the only one they had left who could. She brings her hand back up in a crisp salute.
"Yes, sir," she lied.
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
Zinnerman grunts again. "I see." Of course he does.
She's obviously lying. How could she be okay with this?
Once more he looks to the photograph on his desk. Marie's smile shines back... and he steps over to the young woman, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"... You're afraid, aren't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
She was.
She was more afraid than she ever had been in her life.
But whether or not she was afraid was inconsequential to the mission.
"Even if I am, if it must be done, I will do it."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
"It's okay. I'm scared too," Zinnerman admits.
"I am afraid of losing any one of you, every battle we go into. I am afraid my orders will not be the right choice - of sending any one of you on a course that ends in your death."
He draws in and lets out a deep breath.
"But those children need us - they need our cunning and our strength more than ever. So we owe it to them to find a way."
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
Marida lowers her hand and lets out a breath of her own. She had expected to hear nothing less from her captain, her rock, the man who raised her. This was why she admired him so deeply. This was why he was the most important person in the world to her. And why she l
"Understood, Captain. Hopefully we can find a solution without having to fight the Banshee."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
Zinnerman nods, and buzzes the comm at his desk again, on the frequency the team uses.
"Captain Zinnerman to all Garencieres crew. Meet in the Pit in half an hour. We have an operation to plan."
There has to be something they can figure out. Something they can do that the Vists and Murasame Labs won't see coming.
The Garencieres Team are the best guerilla operatives the Sleeves have; they'll figure something out.
"I need to freshen up, Marida. You should do the same, before we convene."
<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.
"Yes, sir. I'll see you in the Pit." Marida turns on her heel and heads down the hall to her own quarters, taking a quick glance back before turning the corner.