2024-03-08: For this broken world--Growing Pains
- Log: 2024-03-08: For this broken world--Growing Pains
- Cast: Leina Ashta, Lilium Valerie
- Where: Fort Ducrot, France, Continental Europe
- OOC - IC Date: 0098-10-17
- Summary: A young woman involved in the teething process of the nascent Gaia Sabers meets with another young woman, a member of Cathedra, to discuss the organisation's future; as well as the direction of the earth sphere as a whole.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Once upon a time, Fort Ducrot was a German fort in France, in a time before Europe united into the Advanced European Union. The One Year War saw to it's complete decimation.
Once a symbol of occupation, then another of decimation, it's third iteration is a modernized space to reclaim it as a symbol of it's persistence.
It's to here that one Leina Ashta has been sent today, sporting a grey pantsuit with a white blouse, and a smart pair of flats.
One almost wouldn't realize she's a pilot by the security detail that's with her on the visit. Several men in black suits.
There are 'rumors' of course of who she really is beyond just a pilot - mostly from those who have transferred over from Londo Bell, and other Spaceside forces of the EFF that have been cannibalized into the formation of new NUNE blocs...
... but that would take a little digging.
As she walks, she complains idly, "Hate this." And one of the men with her named Ezio simply tells her, "Heard you the fourth time. It's a bed of your own making."
She eyes him out of the corner of her eye, "You're still sore about that, aren't you?"
"You have no idea how much unpaid overtime I put in filling out paperwork... all so you could have your little tryst."
"I said I'd compensate you."
"And I said I'm not allowed to accept compensation."
"Look I'm sorry- if the politics of the day were stonewalling you from seeing your girlfriend-"
"Save it. You have a meeting to focus on."
Her groan was immediate, and quite dramatic.
It was her punishment for ducking her security detail, that she be kept busy when not in school with liaison work to various blocs in the midst of integration.
To ensure a healthy working relationship with Cathedra once the transition is complete.
The upcoming meeting with one Second Lieutenant Lilium Valerie was a part of this. Which... left Leina wary. An earth based NUNE organization with general military jurisdiction over space and the colonies.
History had a habit of repeating itself, didn't it?
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Not too far away, past a few outer gates, checkpoints, and a short slope down into a MULS-P scaled subterranean hangar, a dark-haired woman in the uniform of the Advanced European Union's military forces is in the process of climbing out of one of a row of Mobile Suit simulators. Another day, another autobalancer training course. Another new responsibility as an Officer. Another ton of paperwork passed from below, to be passed to above, and then back down. She lets out a faint little sigh, leaning against one of the dimly-lit walls.
"...This'll be worth it. We'll get it right, this time..." she mumbles, to nobody in particular... before something on the ground catches her eye. A little patch that has been hastily affixed over the AEUF tag on her fatigues has come loose, again.
Squatting down, she picks it up, and takes a moment to read it through once again. 'Gaia Sabers', it says, in a cheap font, made out of a cheap material, in simple black and white. A placeholder, of course, but a symbol of infinite potential, of a future that could be put back on the right course, of a chance to... well, get something right. That's why her work was so important, of course--History couldn't be allowed to repeat itself.
She stands back up, stretches her arms behind her head, and starts to walk back up into the daylight. If Lilium Valerie was going to be a part of this, she was going to give it her 110%. And that meant she had to finish that census of Ducrot, and send it back up the chain.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Despite being in a suit, it's not a particularly long walk for her, even through the checkpoints, she just presents her Cathedra ID.
That alone gets her into most military installations, at least with the bare minimum courtesy, people don't want to be accused of a base hosting that kind of technology.
When they finally descend into a subterranean hangar however, her security does note, "Strange place for a business meeting."
Leina's less apprehensive about the location, than the implications however.
"Probably just someone who prefers the field to a conference room."
Her security however do start walking ahead regardless, following stricter protocols under the auspices of entering an enclosed space.
They never make it however, as there's a young woman stretching in the sun, not far outside the entrance to the hangar itself
"Second Lieutenant Lilium Valerie?"
She asks aloud, as she approaches, somehow knowing from a glance that this is her.
Obviously she must have seen a photo, right?
"I'm the representative from Cathedra, I was sent to 'touch base' with you on the AEU's involvement in the new cross-bloc military organization that NUNE is forming." That's probably a pun, in the sunny smile, but it's at least a light one, enough to remain in the realm of 'Semi-formal.'
"My name is Leina Ashta."
Her eyes resist looking away from her at the 'reading material' left out as she moves towards her. When she gets in range, she extends a hand, pleasant, polite, cordial. "It's very nice to make your acquaintance."
Leina is young enough, probably born just before the One Year War herself. A well put together young woman with curly short brown hair, and green eyes.
And she presents perhaps 'an opportunity'.
To show someone how they'll get it right this time.
Lilium Valerie
Here can be seen a relatively young-looking woman, of slightly above average height. Her deep black hair is tied up in a tight ponytail that hangs down to her middle back, while in front her bangs hang slightly over her eyes on the left side of her face (Theyre held out of the way by a little silver hairpin on her right side. Its shaped like a minimalistic bird facing to the left, with a five-pointed star cut out of it? Odd). Her eyes are a soft pinkish shade, and she typically wears a tiny bit of black lipstick.
She is awake and looks alert.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium blinks, and turns around. Was she--Oh, right. Cathedra... that was today..? She had so much on her plate, she had a hard time keeping track.
Caught somewhat off guard by this, Lilium almost instinctively throws a hasty salute--before sheepishly lowering her hand a moment later, putting together Leina's lack of a rank, and... well, the fact that Cathedra wasn't exactly a military operation to begin with. If she'd remembered, she probably would've had time to pull out a nicer uniform--She was lucky enough to have one of the prototype Gaia Sabers service concepts in her wardrobe, although she never really seemed to wear it--and shuffle her schedule around enough to hold the meeting indoors, but this would do.
"-That's me. Sorry about, ah... The circumstances, there's a lot going on right now." She doesn't really think much on how quickly she's identified, being more concerned with her own appearance. She hastily fixes a few buttons around her collar area, and straightens out the recently-attached second lieutenant's rank tabs.
Managing a weak smile back, Lilium reaches out to take the offered hand, completing a polite handshake. "It's nice to meet you too, Ms. Ashta. Thank you for making the time to come out here."
Drawing her hand back, the somewhat less neat (at least for the present) young woman turning her own, sort of soft-pink eyes up to the sky above her.
"The Sabers are... well, they've... we've only been in existence for what, six months?" She thinks for a moment.
That's... not a lot of time to fully unify every command structure, especially when you consider how... unconventional parts of the AEUF can be."
She looks back down at the woma nin front of her. They were about the same age, as far as she could tell. That was probably a good sign, right?
The future being built by the young, and all that.
At this point, she takes note of the... oddly dense security detail. "Were you... expecting some form of trouble..?"
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
The lack of a rank is rather jarring isn't it? They are an auditing group after all, first and foremost. Leina flies in Dominicus Corps, which at the very least has 'ranks' but no more distinct than Pilot and Commander.
Once upon a time, she served on a military ship.
She didn't have a rank then either.
An understanding smile touches her lips, "There's no need to apologize, I get it. Not every day that something this big collapses... crazy times we live in."
The young woman at least doesn't seem to be just saying that, at least. Her grip is firm in the quick shake of greetings, "Of course."
Leina falls back a pace so as not to remain in her personal space, as she looks up, instead just recollecting the past six months. "That sounds right."
But it's like she's actively groping for the timeline too, as if it's been a whirlwind time for her. "Absolutely. I live in Spain myself, so I understand that our prior military structure was... an eccentric one. Though - Celestial Being's appearance quickly forced a- reckoning of sorts, in unifying that into a task force that could deal with them."
Perhaps it's simply her recounting it, so as to show she's not just some 'Company woman' in her life experience.
There's a smile as she brings up the detail, "Not especially. It's more just a precaution." Yet if Lilium watched some of the men carefully, it's clear some of them relax at her answer.
Like they were afraid of her saying too much as a form of misbehavior.
While it's not widely known, the young woman in front of her is considered 'Critical Earthsphere Defense' in a single key area.
"I suppose my first question is... how your new structure is handling the growing pains of this... expansion of jurisdiction. The war with ZAFT- well, the AEU was mostly taking a defensive stance."
Her smile is wan, as she thinks of poor Bright Noa right now, in retirement again. Likely to come back the moment they demand him again.
Even though he owes them nothing.
"With Londo Bell's demise as our premiere Special Forces unit... to be blunt... that's rather a lot to put on Earthside military with... limited experience in Space Combat."
It's leading somewhere. In her mind, it's leading mostly to - Colonial defense, since it was left mostly to the devices of each Side's militia like, Border Guard.
For now though she stops on this question, it's broad enough.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Switching gears somewhat, Lilium reconsiders her approach. This was more politics than a conversation between servicewomen... not her strong suit, but if this was going to be her job now she'd make do.
"Indeed... still, we've got to make the most of it. No sense letting the world stay broken."
Lilium glances around the fort, taking a moment to reflect on the things that've happened over the last few years.
Around the base, things happen at a generally mercurial pace. An ancient GM with a trainer cockpit stumbles forwards, struggling to find its feet.
Groups of AEU soldiers, a few wearing the same rudimentary Gaia Sabers patch that adorned Lilium's uniform mill about between the few surviving ancient structures, and the modern military base's infrastructure.
Just outside the main gate, a nondescript Wanzer with an oversized bucket of paint and a brush sets about covering up the AEUF logo on a signpost.
The junior officer turns her attention back to Leina, nodding along to her recollections. "Eccentric is... certainly a word for it." Her face shifts into a frown slightly at the latter half of the statement. "...Would you believe me if I told you that the anti-Celestial Being task force's arrangements actually make my job harder, in some ways?"
"The brass in the Sabers want about 85% of the AEUF, with the rest going to an officially sanctioned national guard, and the higher-ups in what's still AEUF high command for now have very... particular requirements for what part of the forces end up in the remaining 15%. That, and having to deal with... irregulars trying to pull themselves back out of the command structure before things get properly folded in..."
She shakes her head, crossing her arms atop her chest.
Lilium doesn't really register the men's reaction, instead nodding along once again. "Right, right... Better to have it and not need it than... you know."
Possibly an oddly apt analogy, not that she'd know why.
"The jurisdiction growth? That's... part of the reason things've been going so slowly. Only a few people from each bloc've been pulled into the Sabers formally so far, myself included, and we're less concerned with the 'defending the earth sphere' part of our duties than we are... well, making sure the final organisation is equipped to handle its duties"
Lilium laughs nervously, rubbing the back of her head beneath her ponytail. "...I remember. I was on the ground for that. Wanzer Operator. We held our line well enough, not that they ever tried that hard to break it..."
Another sigh. "Londo Bell collapsing was... a blow, but inevitable. Moving away from autonomous corps brings us back to a more structured military, and that lets us... actually project force, if necessary. Although ideally we wouldn't end up doing that outside of, I don't know, another outwardsly hostile alien incursion."
She stares back up at the sky, almost looking... beyond it, so to speak. "The SAL have their FAITH and ZAFT, and until we can get our metaphorical feet wet--I'm in the middle of Mobile Suit conversion training myself--They'll do for any space-side threat outside of a... worst-case scenario. And if it gets that bad, training and experience are the least of our concerns."
Another moment's thought.
"Of course, there's the non-NUNE sides, but they're, ah..."
She shakes her head, shutting her eyes for a moment."Well... not our jurisdiction to begin with."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It was never not broken.
Are words that never leave her mouth, that same smile on her lips as she listens, but that alone, tells her quite a lot of the woman in front of her.
A desire to fix it, is good. But-
Leina's eyes look at the GM, wondering what it's purpose is on a modern base. Even for training it was so far out of date.
"Wonder if Mom would find it nostalgic." She murmurs viewing it, even as she looks on by at the soldiers. Ordinarily she'd stop by to chat with them, but she's not being allotted the time today.
"I would." Leina tells her, "Unity with such focus can be myopic and always comes with a price on so many other fronts."
Is her evaluation- but as a Colony girl, her heart goes out to the other side of this war.
"Certainly enforcement of statutes against Human Experimentation within the AEU was at an all time low- more likely that they were outright disregarded, given the value that they would be seen for producing combat assets."
That might seem like an unusual thing to focus on- on it's face, but that is Cathedra's mandate, the expansion of which includes human experimentation.
Given how her arms cross, and she takes a step forward, it might almost seem like that's a rather personal issue to her.
The breakdown isn't surprising, but Leina's doing further calculations in her head. She imagines Britannia is negotiating to give far less, given their imperialistic aims.
The men nod their heads at her assessment of their presence, Leina doesn't say much at all, just, this odd twinkle in her eye, almost mirth at her answer.
There's a sideways look as she speaks of how they're working to even be certain they were equipped for such duties, "Now certainly would be a pretty bad time for someone to take advantage of the organizational chaos..." She notes, "We're doing our part, to make certain the Sleeves don't have weapons to rally behind, should they decide to reemerge."
Indeed in many ways, Cathedra's enforcement of Psychoframe regulations has led to an all time low of Zeon remnant groups on Earth.
Even if she knows certainly some can never be uprooted. They're just too entrenched in the desert sands.
"Enlisted pretty young."
Leina comments, quietly, on Lilium's presence as a Wanzer Operator. "They never did push far into AEU territory..." She says quietly, of the unbroken line.
After all, for ZAFT it was more a war of survival then aggression... until Zala and Rau, damn them.
"Luckily then we don't have many, other than the Vajra." Hostile aliens that is, "Mmm." She hums softly on the force projection...
... it's ominous, given the number of scapegoats that could arise to give them cause to.
"Ah- that's a whole lot of transitioning to do." Leina comments, "But feels wholly necessary, space combat without all your forces in AMBAC feels like a nightmare scenario."
She does take her time working up to it, putting her fingertips on the railing, "There's always the possibility of Cathedra 'consulting' with that, after all, but us being private sector probably would make it nothing more than a marriage of convenience."
It's a quick subject to mull over, as she speaks on the non-NUNE side, "No. They're not." Leina says, as if just affirming it, but does she actually feel a swell of pride when it comes to those Sides.
"... I suppose I'll stop dancing around it." With a hand upon the rail, she looks Lilium's way and- "What about Colonial Security? When there isn't a cause where force projection on that scale is necessary, will such matters be left to the League?"
A beat pause...
"Or should we expect another Green Noa 2?"
In her mind, it will never not be 'Gryps II' - that instrument of annihilation, but 'Green Noa 2' invokes the Spectre of the Titans far more effectively.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Clueless to Leina's inner monologue, Lilium continues along her own path. This world will never know peace as long as it's in pieces, surely?
What that meant for the places she had mentioned very clearly were not under the Jurisdiction she was helping to uphold, well... wasn't something she was really thinking about. Maybe she'd realise something if she stopped to. Maybe she wouldn't.
Following Leina's gaze to the GM, Lilium tilts her head slightly to one side. "The TGM? It's an old model, obviously. We're supposed to be painting it in Gaia Sabers colours and installing it as a gate guardian, just as soon as someone figures out what Gaia Sabers colours are."
She pauses for a moment.
"A few proposals have been thrown around... People generally agree the secondary color should be green, but there's a lot of debate over if that should be paired with EFF white, or a few proposals are calling for Titans Blue--horrendously bad optics, considering what they became, but there's diehards for the late titans aesthetic in the upper echelons somehow... Don't get why, considering they were basically dressing up as Zeon officers by that point..."
Yet another sigh escapes her lips. "...Britannians." She shakes her head. "Personally, I'm of the mind we should just make green the primary colour, maybe break up the sections of the paint job in a different way too... be something different, look to the future..."
She trails off. "Anyway, I'm not sure why it's being moved. It's the only mobile weapon on the base taller than the MULS-P standard, so they might want it for some job, but if we break it we're all in trouble. That's... a problem for later, I suppose."
"Lilium listens to Leina's response, nodding once more. "Yes, that's... yet another reason we're taking our time getting set up. Unifying the whole military has its risks, but if we're careful we can minimise them, and... well. We all know how trying something like this that excluded the regular forces entirely ended."
She glances up at the sky again, shutting her eyes as the topic shifts. "...Right. Ideally we'd like to drive that back down... shouldn't have gone up in the first place, really. If we for some reason absolutely needed people who could use weapons designed for coordinators, we could've just... got coordinators, it's not like they're illegal here... Although I suppose there's an angle where you could view them as human experiments in their own right... But it's still better to recruit someone who was born that way, regardless of if it was naturally or otherwise, and actually wants to be... well, I suppose the ZAFT war was another matter."
She shakes her head. "Still. There was no justification for that, as far as I'm concerned."
Moving on after a moment, Lilium glances about nervously. "And we're extremely grateful for that. In theory, we'd be able to muster a response, but... well. We've only got one shot at setting this up, and if we had to rush it we'd probably make all sorts of mistakes we couldn't get rid of without tearing it all down and starting over, and we'd probably have to fight another war for that. I don't want to get caught up in a second gryps conflict."
The walking museum piece, meanwhile, makes its purpose known--physically lifting the roof off a shed, allowing access to its rafters. Something you could probably do from the inside, with a ladder. A faint groan can be heard from Lilium, but she shakes her head. "...The fact they're even able to do that means someone above my pay grade signed off on it, and I can't exactly pull rank on my superiors. The Gaia Sabers isn't that kind of organisation, at least."
She cants her head to one side at Leina's comment. "Soon as I turned eighteen. I had... personal reasons. Decided I wanted to do everything I could to make sure... certain things could never happen again fairly young. Almost forgot about it, but then 0093 happened... ended up enlisting as soon as I turned eighteen. Which was... just in time for the Federal Assembly to decide it was time for us to fight the PLANTs, as it turned out."
"Well, I can't imagine they had much reason to... We weren't really moving against them, aside from a few token pushes against Gibraltar to keep the Union happy, and it's not like there was much in the way of strategic objectives for them here..."
Lilium nods, once again. "Well, hopefully it stays that way. I can't imagine we'll be able to smooth things over as well as we did in the Zentradi War... Although it'd probably be worth making sure we couldn't first."
As the subject shifts past the possibility of the Gaia Sabers projecting force--an uncomfortable subject, but a necessary possibility to account for, as far as she was concerned--Lilium replies "Well, there's always VFs, but they've a much higher skill floor than MS... and it's not like companies are lining up to produce new ones."
Turning to watch the GM go about its unnecessary work, Lilium remains silent for a moment as the question is posed.
"Ideally, I'd hope so. A bit of a waste to have the SAL maintain their own military forces, otherwise... but that's over my head."
She pauses for a moment. Being... versed in the kinds of history she was, a question jumped out at her--Since Gryps, or Green Noa 2, was split into Grpys I the colony and Gryps II the colony laser... did anyone keep track of where Gryps I ended up? She'd never seen it mentioned in any official documents, but the weapon was always Gryps II. That was... odd, wasn't it?
She shakes her head once again, and turns back to face Leina. "Green Noa 2 was, before it got split in half, mostly an industrial plant. Weapons development. I can entirely see that happening offworld... but everything they did with Gryps after that? I'd hope we never even consider."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Yeah. Oh just ... My Mother served in the One Year War."
She offers in explanation, though without a name. Invoking Sayla Mass and the White Base often changes things in how people see her right away.
But most people have Mothers, including many with a record of military service.
There's a soft chuckle when she speaks of the colors, and blue, "Still beholden to the NIA hawks." She says, as if the idea put a bad taste in her mouth.
"... It makes more sense if you think of it from the perspective of the average citizen of the Colonies."
Leina says, as if in explanation, "It was less than a decade before that Zeon was gassing and destroying the Colonies themselves, and now they were being viewed as- hotbeds of Anti-Federation sentiment."
Leina's fingertips are gripping that rail a little hard aren't they? Of that one hand. "... In a sense, it was an unspoken threat."
At the very least, she can smile over the mutual distaste for Britannians, that's at least a common trait of anyone in the AEU.
Well except for the Blue Cosmos hold outs that don't realize their movement is all but dead, admiring Britannian policies a little overmuch.
"Sounds like a good start. Just - definitely anything but blue." She says, and even winks, at that point.
The unification discussion, well, Leina smiles, "Not just excluded, pulled rank on. That whole two rank thing certainly was a sore spot to enlisted EFF."
'It's not like they're illegal here' causes Leina to briefly sideeye her, because... the damage of the mass migration to Side 2 is already done, but she just-
"I'd say the League will have an easier time getting Coordinators integrated in their forces, given the strong resentment they have of being mass deported from Earth, G-Hound's occupation and attempted Genocide, Murata Azrael's corpse not yet being cold enough for their tastes, primarily I'm speaking of... Cyber Newtypes, Boosted Humans, Cybernetic Man/Machine formats..."
There's more, certainly, but she can't even name half of them without hitting upon secrets.
"What I'm saying is mostly just that enforcement of existing statutes suffered when they were 'convenient' to fighting the Coordinator forces. Fortunately recent events have... caused the new NUNE government to see the light."
A less subtle pun perhaps, for the light of possibility, that the RX-0's showed the EFF prior to it's collapse, Leina watches the GM do it's job with roofing, "Ah." A mildly sheepish look.
Lilium though answers on her service record, as she speaks of 0093, and those green eyes of Leina's shutter because... of course, Axis would be the reason.
"Shame that. Doubt that was the battlefield you wanted to be fighting on after Char Aznable decided to drop Axis on our heads, but what soldier gets to choose that?"
Perhaps that's why she's not a soldier herself...
... there is at least, some modicum of choice in the path she's on, right now. "Almost certainly not."
She agrees when it comes to smoothing things over, thinking of the worrisome reports of the aliens out there that she learned about during the Gallia IV expedition.
"Unfortunately no, MS feels decisively the way of the future, even with Anaheim being taken over into the Benerit Group." As she speaks on VF, and on this she sounds rueful, "I'm sure they'd want me to spin that as a positive, but if they wanted that from me, they should have sent someone from sales or the marketing."
She's definitely a strange sort of young woman to be with Cathedra, isn't she? And it's like she's not afraid of getting in trouble with her superiors.
"I'd say so."
She sounds, relieved? Space matters being left to Spacenoids... well, it's what she always hoped for.
The question had been perhaps a small test in a way, and the answer...
"Good. Good. That certainly gives me hope for the future of this undertaking." She says sunnily, "After all- If someone tried to fire something like Gryps II at me and my family again I'd be forced to write a strongly worded letter to your Superiors."
She's joking right? ... She has to be joking. The smile on her face certainly makes it seem like she is, but there is an exchanged glance between the Security Guards.
One of them rubbing the bridge of their nose.
Are they all doing the equivalent of groaning at her sense of humor, worrying that she's saying too much, or both?
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Giving another faint, understand nod, Lilium smiles weakly once again. "I'm... glad that by the sounds of things she made it home, then. We both know far too many people didn't."
Continuing to be, from an omniscient perspective, comically unaware of anything about the woman she was speaking to, Lilium continued on.
"Unfortunately." She sighs, glancing down to check her watch, and then back up at the GM that was, against all odds, somehow still not done with whatever absurd task it was being used to carry out.
"It's... always worth remembering that." She says, staring down at her feet for a moment. "From the perspective of the average Earthnoid, the first half of 0084 was... well, a pretty good year, considering how the last one ended. We had new heroes to celebrate, we were going to enter a period of unparalleled unity, the Britannians were hopefully going to be happy with their Gundam Fight, instead of invading anyone who looked at them funny... Kids wanted to be Titans when they grew up the same way they used to want to be astronauts, or superheroes... and then 30 Bunch happened. Or... we found out that it had already happened."
She scowls slightly at this point, clenching one fist for just a moment before relaxing slightly.
"I wasn't old enough to really get what was happening back then... But I got that they'd turned their backs on the ideals they were supposed to stand for. Maybe they never actually did in the first place. Dr. Hell was still actively trying to take over the world, even, and they chose to focus on suppressing colonial opposition to them instead."
She blinks... and then realises how catastrophically she'd miscalculated her words. "-ah. Right. 'Here' means... well, the earth as a whole now, I suppose. Can't imagine Coordinator recruitment's going to be too high for us, at least not for a while..."
Another sigh. "Again, can't really fault them for it. I... knew a couple coordinators growing up. The AEU's always been the... least worst federal nation for them, as far as I'm aware. Honestly, a lot of the reason so many of the integrated 'irregular' units are trying to drop back out before we finish setting up the Sabers is a sizable portion of them just so happen to be coordinators who couldn't be allowed to serve in the regular forces without the Britannians making a fuss about it in the assembly." She glances down at her hand, before continuing "Can't imagine they're... exactly keen on the idea of being integrated with a pan-bloc military that includes... well, less than friendly entities towards them. Hopefully they can find their way to the League... at least until things get better. They'll get better. We have to make sure they do." She looks back up again, and nods her head.
"...Right, right. Even if the AEUF did pawn off any equipment with... particular requirements to the irregulars in Moralia, I can't imagine they would've been too happy to use it against ZAFT."
Lilium pauses for a moment, considering something. "...and as far as cyber-newtypes and MMFs are concerned... well, they weren't as relevant to the conflict, but... Newtype weapons as a whole, frankly, are terrifying. The concept of a Newtype is mired in so many political connotations it'd be easy for someone down here to convince themselves they don't exist if we didn't all see Axis Shock. And... whatever it was that happened to the devil gundam before that. And... as you say, Recent Events... but now that we've all seen all that it's pretty clear at this point that they're real."
She shakes her head. "...This isn't relevant. What matters is that we shouldn't be putting anyone in machines like that, and we absolutely shouldn't be altering people's brains so they can operate them. MMFs are... their own can of worms, but they're also political suicide in a way that dwarfs every other form of human experiment. To bring up a somewhat obscure example, I can't imagine we'll ever see the use of Permet again... I'm pretty sure that fell out of use almost entirely before either of us were born. I wouldn't even know what it was if it didn't get mentioned offhand as an example of things Cathedra have jurisdiction over by one of my superiors" She says, unknowingly touching the lathe of heaven.
"She sighs, closing her eyes. "...Maybe enlisting was the wrong decision at the time, but... I don't know, I looked up into the sky one night and suddenly I was an 11 year old girl watching the sky fall on the next island over from my bedroom window again. And then suddenly there's this green flash, and it just... didn't fall. Act of god, as far as anyone down here knew in the moment. We weren't going to get that lucky again." She finally places a hand on the railing herself. "...But, of course, you don't get to choose the battlefield you fight on, so here we are." She turns to face Leina, grinning slightly at the 'marketing pitch.'
"Well, it's been heading that way for years now... Transformable MS are finally approaching a point where they're as viable as Variable Fighters are in flight mode, and AMBAC is practically necessary to manuever in space outside of it... Nothing really positive or negative about it, just how things are. I don't think they need someone to spin that to me."
Pausing for a moment, she does clarify "...if, say, it became an earth problem, that might change things, but that'd be... well, it'd basically have to be a successful attempt at a colony drop, and if the SAL failed to stop that they'd probably have lost a lot of resources doing it and need the support anyway. And I'm pretty sure nobody who'd be interested in colony dropping has the strength to do that right now."
She raises an eyebrow. "I'm.. glad to hear that, then. And I hope they'll never have to fire anything like that again, honestly... with any luck GENESIS was the end of that particular lineage." She says, continuing to brush off the suspicious actions of Leina's security detail.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"She did." She smiles at that, "One of the lucky ones." Certainly, she can watch the unusual use of the GM for roofing, but then again... not so unusual, compared to some of Judau's shenanigans.
He absolutely would use the Double Zeta to roof, wouldn't he?
"Was on Side 1 myself at the time." Leina tells her when she speaks of things worth remembering, perhaps because she at least caught a sign it'd not be an immediate conversation stopper that she's a Spacenoid born, "When Thirty Bunch happened. There were protests beforehand, you know? The usual politics I didn't have time to pay attention to, it was- school and figuring out our next meal."
Her sightline drifts down, "When the media blackout ended..." The thought drifts off, "... well, suddenly, we had to pay attention. But there weren't anymore protests against... things like lack of representation."
It may start to cause an unusual timeline to be plotted out in Lilium's head, of her past history, after all she lived in the Colonies? A bad one at that? But now she lives in Spain, while flying with Dominicus Corps on the ring...
"Yeah Koji sometimes talks about how the Titans and him were aligned at first against Hell, but then it gradually became them- trying to assert control, until they just became another front of the fight for him." She rubs the back of her head as if in thought, "Think it was the Kyushu Zone that became the breaking point? Been a while since I heard the story."
Titans history isn't especially well documented, for a reason after all.
Leina's definitely not without understanding of her misspeaking, sometimes people just need a nudge. Either way, she smiles after a moment, "I imagine it'll pick up once Earthside legislation catches up, but they seem happy enough with the League's changes, and Durandal... so guess we'll see how it affects immigration."
'Least Worst' Leina can definitely get on board with that, it mirrors her thoughts of the AEU. She'd almost give that crown to the OCU but- almost doesn't cut it, for some regions that are still destitute from Second Impact. All the free energy in the world won't help them.
"We will." Leina agrees quietly, on having to make sure they get better. There's a mirthless smile on her expression as Lilium discusses Newtype weapons and Newtypes, and all the reasons why they shouldn't be used. There is momentary surprise when she brings up Permet, as that isn't widely known, but she doesn't question it...
... it makes sense that someone forming a cross bloc military organization would be 'in' on it. "Oh the pundits are still trying to convince people they don't exist, certainly. What's a Newtype, and what isn't. It's all semantic nonsense."
As she puts a hand up in front of her eyes, like blinders, "If you asked them what we all saw that day was simply an inexplicable human miracle... words like 'Newtype' don't factor into it." There's a sarcasm there of course, but also a deep sorrow, "And that was all fine and good - but an inexplicable human miracle that becomes quantifiable... that can be repeated."
The hand drops away, "That becomes something else. Legislation quietly amended, regulations against certain technologies..." She tells her quietly, "... that is why Cathedra exists, and why we must exist. Miracles demand sacrifice. To weaponize them - is to take the human element out of the occasion."
Her tone is perhaps far too serious, in this moment.
"And that is why I have high hopes that the Gaia Saber will allow us to stake out our territory there without too much fuss... because a future where we do not is too terrible to comprehend. For the people who would work towards such a future..." A short pause, "... well the threat of 'political suicide' may not be enough to deter them."
The talk of her being eleven years old, well, Leina looks abstracted, because certainly, she remembers her own experiences at that age. She can empathize with the feelings of any eleven year old girl. Painfully so, she can't escape her own feelings from that day.
"Probably it was the right decision at the time." She says to her after a moment, "Because what argument could anyone offer, to the eleven year old who went through that? ... Noone can tell her to look away." A little sad, and wistful, that tone of hers, "It was years too late for that."
There's a shake of her head, at people interested in Colony Dropping. "Probably they're too afraid that Gendo Ikari has presented Earth the solution to the 'Evil Spacenoid'." She says ruefully, "Probably years yet before anyone tries again after that... which Angel was that again?"
She can't remember the names, too biblical for her brain to grasp. Her mother only taught her the vague vestiges of the concepts of religion without any substance behind them.
"Me too." Leina says too easily, too readily of the idea of them firing something like that again, "But feels unlikely. That's why we're here - to create a working relationship where powerful idiots don't decide the best solution to the problems they created is to erase them."
That's rather irreverent and disrespectful, but - also despite her flippancy, it feels genuine? Honest? Like she's decided to spare her the 'bullshit' so to speak.
"Wanna go sit down somewhere? Feels like we can start over the nitty gritty of the usual jurisdictional issues. We're gonna step on each others feet until we've figured out this dance, but maybe we can cut it down to bruised toes rather than broken ones."
It is an offer, but perhaps depending on Lilium's view... it could be a good start. The two forces will need some sort of working relationship after all going forward.
Or the world's just going to end up more broken.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium turns her gaze back up into the sky one final time. She had visibly reacted with surprise when Leina mentioned she was Spacian by birth, but shrugs it off--all sorts of people come from all sorts of places, after all.
She also shrugs off the casual mention of working alongside Kouji Kabuto--Even she could figure out, at this point, that Leina was someone relatively important. "Oh, they actually didn't show up to the Hell Uprising until right before the end--arguably becoming the deciding factor in why it ended when it did. This was years after 30 bunch, of course. I suppose by that point dissent was quelled enough that they could do their actual job for the first and... well, possibly only time. No matter how hard you dig, the period where the gryps conflict was still ongoing but the first neo zeon war had already started is completely buried." She shakes her head.
"... well, the PLANTs have probably the nicest spacian living standards outside of the Neo Colonies... Up and Down are as close to properly defined as you can get with inertial gravity, the shape of the colonies themselves produces something resembling an actual sky, more effort has put into the 'ground'... It's still not perfect, but I can definitely understand being more comfortable there than you would on the earth while things are still... Like This."
%Lilium notes the slight surprise at her mention of what she was fairly sure was a meaningless anecdote--a developmental dead-end that was, in essence, only remembered in any form as an example of 'here is what Cathedra does', Lilium of course knowing none of the actual details of what had transpired--not something people would particularly care about in the years approaching the turn of the second Universal Century, but shrugs it off also--Leina, as far as she was concerned, was probably just shocked her instructors thought it was noteworthy enough to even be mentioned in passing.
"Well, people can argue about that until we're all newtypes with coordinator genes, and probably after that too, but at the end of the day... it's all academics, yes."
Her eyes narrow slightly as Leina starts talking about 'repeatable' miracles... Before she gives a slow, firm nod. Some things must not be allowed to pass. "Let's both hope we can do it right, then."
She reflects, once again, on her childhood, before sighing faintly. "...I suppose so. Some things you just... can't undo the fact that you've seen. Even from a distance.
"...oh, no idea. The only thing about those I remember is that there were two tenth ones, somehow. Out of my wheelhouse."
She gives another firm nod. "Right. And so we don't create problems that can't be dealt with otherwise."
She thinks over Leina's offer for a moment. "...Sure. We've got to start somewhere, and bruised rather than broken sounds good to me."
Everything has to start somewhere, and having a stable working relationship with Cathedra would do a lot to help the Gaia Sabers find their feet.
And you can't fix a world without making something new.