2025-04-25: Remnants of a Broken Past
- Log: Remnants of a Broken Past
- Cast: Macross Quarter & Co, Leon Sakaki, Shinji Kaminaga
- Where: Remains of Gallia IV
- OOC - IC Date: 20 May 0100
- Summary: The Macross Quarter and its allies return to where the war with the Vajra began all those years ago: Gallia IV. Or at least what's left of it. There they encounter a familiar foe and find evidence of the true plans behind the war.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
It's been one week since the Macross Quarter, along with several
Terminal support vessels, departed the Earth Sphere and set course for the
Gallia system. Gallia IV is where it all started...
The first encounter with the Vajra by the 117th Research Fleet, which
was subsequently destroyed.
The expedition to the planet a decade later, which ultimately led to
the planet's destruction and the loss of many lives.
For those who were actually there, it's quite the solemn affair to be
returning now. For those who weren't, they only have the reports of the
expedition to go on. Specifically that not one, but two weapons of mass
destruction detonated, wiping out the Zuvorg Alliance colony that was on the
planet, as well as what remained of the wreckage of the 117th Research Fleet.
So why is the Quarter returning? Well, Captain Jeffrey Wilder explains
that himself as he addresses the fleet still in fold space:
"Attention all vessels. We will be returning to normal space in
approximately ten minutes. We don't know precisely what we will find, but
given the events that occurred here in the past, the situation will likely be
dangerous. But it is a danger we will have to face, if we hope to shed any
light on the truth of this war."
"There's no guarantee we are going to find anything, but at this point
we have few choices. The Frontier Fleet is firmly under the control of
President Leon Mishima, who has the support of the Space Assembly League.
Despite the fact that we know him to be responsible for the assassination of
the former President, Howard Glass."
On the bridge of the Macross Quarter, Catherine Glass closes her eyes
at the mention of her father. She had been the one to find his corpse, while
attempting to flee the Vajra attacks inside the Island One colony ship. She
had realized what had happened and that, as a result, she too would likely be
hunted down. Thankfully she found refuge on the Macross Quarter, which has
been hounded by Frontier Defense Fleet forces since then in an attempt to
quiet her. All under the guise of bringing 'justice' to SMS, who had defied
presidential orders and stolen valuable equipment and technology.
Captain Wilder continues, "But there is clearly more to what is going
on than what we are aware of. And if we can't find the answers we need within
the Frontier Fleet, then there is only one other place we can look. Thus, upon
arrival at our destination, we will perform a search for anything that may
shed light on this war, or President Mishima's plans. We can only hope that
something of the 117th Research Fleet still remains." Wilder ends his
transmission.
A short time later, the vessels participating in this mission all
transition back into normal space, emerging from the portals of light that
quickly shatter into numerous motes of light that soon vanish.
The bridge crew of the Macross Quarter had all been to Gallia IV
before. They don't know what they were expecting after its apparent
destruction. As after all, they didn't stick around to witness it or the
aftermath. But it seems none of them were actually expecting this...
Out of the bridge windows, an expansive rocky debris field expands
outwards, though is quickly obscured by large clouds of swirling darkness.
Bolts of energy frequently blast across space between the chunks of the former
planet. Sensors are quick to raise alarms as areas of this hazardous space are
detected to contain extreme levels of supergravity that could crush even an
armored warship like a tin can.
Thankfully there do seem to be paths through the debris field that are
relatively safer, presenting an opportunity to proceed forward. One which
Captain Wilder apparently intends to take as he orders, "Launch all units in
escort formation."
As the vessels of this second expedition to Gallia IV launch their
array of Mobile Weapons, the fleet begins to slowly move forward, following
the safer corridors through the disturbances.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
As the fleet defolds, the Northampton class stealth frigate S.M.S. Gefion is
among its ranks, its white hull standing starkly against the blackness of
space. Having joined the fleet after Leon informed Aisha of the situation,
it's accompanied the Quarter to Galia IVAt its helm, a pink haired Meltrandi -
Aisha Blanchette - stands at the controls, staring out at the ruins of the
planet before them. She whistles as the tumultuous debris field comes into
full view.
"Heck of a view"
Beside her, Leon Sakaki stands with his arms crossed and his face grim. An
entire planet wiped out just like that? Leon's stomach churns as Sephira
crosses his mind. His home nearly suffered this same fate. He shakes his head
to dispel the thoughts. He's got a job to do, and no matter what, he is a
professional.
"Aisha, is your 'secret project' ready for use? I feel like I could use it for
today..." Leon asks.
"For the last time, it'll be ready when it's ready! You can't rush genius!"
Aisha fires back. Leon rolls his eyes at that.
"If you say so. I'm heading out, then. Spot me, yeah?" Leon waves to Aisha as
he heads for the hangar.
"If you're dumb enough to miss an entire asteroid, there's no point in
employing you!" she calls after him.
In the Gefion's hangar, a tan VF-25A with hastily added sea-green paint (on
loan from the Macross Quarter's reserve) sits ready for launch. Leon taxis out
onto the Gefion's launch bay, holographic guidelines lighting up as the wings
fold out.
"Be careful with that thing, okay? You're not getting another one after what
you did to your Prophecy," Aisha says over the radio.
"Relax, it's a rental!" Leon says. He does miss that Prophecy Nope! He's not
getting bogged down today. He's got work.
"Siegfried 1, launching!"
As Captain Wilder gives the order to launch, three Queadlunn-Rheas and a VF-25G
Messiah take off in formation and head into the asteroid field. Since the
abrupt dissolution of Skull Squadron due to conflicts of interest, Michael's
currently flying with the Pixie Team - not that he minds. A squadron full of
ladies? It's the perfect position - and of course, Klan's here, too.
"Alright, fan out and get searching, people. We're not here to sightsee." Speak
of the devil. Klan's voice crackles over the radio, and Michael snaps out of
his thoughts.
"Roger-dodger, Captain~" Time to put those famed sniper's eyes of his to work.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
As the fleet continues deeper into the chaotic field of a broken
planet, the safe corridor they've been following starts to split off into
smaller, each weaving its way through the dangers in a different direction.
It's a bit of a risk, but time is of the essence. They can't afford to back
track to each junction and try another. So the fleet starts to split up.
At each intersection, one of the ships breaks off from the fleet with a
small escort of Mobile Weapons. This continues for over an hour, with everyone
on edge as one wrong move could lead to any number of unpleasant deaths.
Finally, afer another ship breaks off down an alternate route, this
leaves just two left. The Gefion and the Quarter. Along with the escorts
assigned to them. Morale is not especially high at this point, given they've
been at this for a while now and not a single sign of anything useful. Just
rocky debris, dark clouds and bolts of space lightning.
"Mmmmm, are we even going to be able to find anything in this mess?"
Mina, one of the Quarter's bridge operators, leans forward against her
console, watching her display of the ship's systems occasionally flicker from
the extreme interference the vessel is being bombarded with.
Beside her, Ram taps away at her own console, saying, "Large quantities
of rock and ores. Numerous spatial distortions. Heavy quantum reactions. There
is a lot here."
"But nothing useful to us." Bobby remarks from his position at the
controls of the warship. He's sweating just a little as he maneuvers the
Quarter around a particularly tight bend in the corridor they are currently
following.
At the side of the Captain, who remains quiet, Chief Operator Monica
says, "We knew this would be a long shot and might take some time. But we know
that there were several wrecks in orbit that the Shakuyaku was not able to
scout before they were destroyed. If those wrecks were far enough away from
the planet to avoid immediate destruction, they might still be intact."
The Quarter finally rounds the corner in the corridor, coming out into
a straighter path once more. Monica squints for a moment, thinking she might
have seen something in the distance. Flashes of colours that didn't match the
rest of the maelstrom. And judging by the sudden uptake in typing from Mina,
it seems it was not Monica's imagination. Monica asks, "What is it?"
Tapping away at her console, Ram reports, "Explosive reactions...
Charged particle readings... It appears to be weapons fire."
From his seat, Captain Wilder grunts in interest and says, "Pixie Team,
Siegfried 1, proceed ahead and scout the situation."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
The Gefion and its escort slowly sail through the asteroid field, and as the
minutes turn into hours, Leon groans. He is very, very bored.
"Are we even looking for anything in particular?" he asks on his private line
to Aisha.
"Basically anything suspicious, I think. I'll know when I see it," Aisha
replies.
"Great..." Leon's head is starting to feel really heavy on his neck. As the 25A
passes a pocket of distorted space, Leon's eyebrows raise as he stares into
the crackling void - and then, something strange happens.
"I've been hearing you for a long time..."
The hairs on the back of Leon's neck all stand up as he hears something - that
same song. Where is it from? It sounds so familiar
"Hey, newbie! You awake?" Klan's voice barks at him over the radio, snapping
him out of his daze.
"Huh-whuh Yes! Yes ma'am!" Leon sits up straight, as his radar pings.
"We've got shots fired at Point Q6! Look alive!" Klan orders.
"Right! Siegfried 1, moving to ascertain the situation!" Leon throws the
throttle on the Messiah, and it blasts forwards through space as the Pixie
Team and Michael form up on him.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Kaminaga has posed.
GGG is not, technically, in accordance with any of this. They are not allies to
Terminal, nor particularly close to Frontier. But they aren't part of the SAL,
either, and GGG is never afraid to lend one agent an opportunity when their
heart is afire.
Shinji Kaminaga asked to rendezvous with the expedition and his fierce focus on
this task saw him granted two buddies for the task: One, his usual partner
Hiroko Asami; and two, Volfogg, who is driving one of GGG's current crop of
Division Ships. Don't ask which one the production notes won't be out for
years.
This is all to say why a ship in the bright gold of GGG's space fleet curves
its way back into formation, winding paths reconverging here.
The two GGG Red agents stand at opposite sides of the bridge, a grand-scale
chamber in the style of the Macross 7 or, indeed, GGG's own old Intelligence
ships, suited against space combat. "I don't see you this fired up much,"
Asami mutters. "What's got you in such a twist you'd send us clear out here?"
"The Vajra," Shinji says, eyes raking across the screens. "Their behavior
is...unnatural."
Asami groans and rolls her eyes. "Everybody this side of Alpha Centauri knows
that," she sighs. "You really think this place will hold the answer?"
"I think waiting on Earth for the Vajra master fleet will not," Shinji says.
Volfogg, who is an enormous presence seated at the back of the room, pipes in:
"Weaponsfire detected. Likely hostile and intelligent activity. We cannot
proceed further. This vessel has no weapons suitable for use in such an
environment."
Shinji turns on his heels. "I will take the A-Weapon," he says.
Shortly after, a squat little aircraft shoots forward on Ul-Tech light, a
vessel in the shape of Gridman's Accepter joining up with the rest of the
responders.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The escorts rush ahead of their capital ships. It's hard to see far
through the haze of distortions, but there do appear to be flashes of light
ahead. And soon enough, the same readings the vessels were picking up are
detected by the escorts.
After passing through a somewhat dense formation of asteroids, the
escorts come out into a larger opening of safe space. Still somewhat cluttered
by the planetary debris, it does allow for some maneuvering room without
accidentally flying into a supergravity field and being crushed to the size of
a watermelon.
And sure enough, they are not alone here.
At the other edge of the clear space are four units. Variable fighters.
Everyone's systems recognise them, labelling their models as VF-27 Gamma
Lucifer. Though unlike the one flown by the Galaxy survivor, Brera Sterne,
these ones are painted green.
As the discovery is relayed back to the Quarter, Monica asks, "Are
those the same ones as..."
Ram answers quickly, "Confirmed. Their signatures match the Valkyries
that engaged our salvage team during the previous expedition here."
Wilder gruffly orders, "All hands to battle stations. Expect them to be
hostile."
It's Bobby who, watching the grainy video footage being relayed to
screens on the bridge, asks, "What are they doing?"
It's a valid question as the four Lucifers are firing their missiles
and beam gunpods into a particularly dense collection of asteroids at the edge
of the clearing. Given their relatively stationary position and lack of return
fire, it doesn't appear to be a battle with someone else.
Whatever they are doing though, they stop as they seem to detect the
approach of the escorts. The Lucifers quickly turn, engines flaring as they
rapidly accelerate up to combat speeds. Their actions feel quite hostile,
which is only reinforced as they start peppering the escorts with beam machine
gun fire.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
"Lucifers? What are those?" Leon asks.
"Those are Galaxy's latest model, dolt! They're technological miracles!" Aisha
shouts.
"Well, that spells great things for my chances. Siegfried 1, engaging!" Leon
breaks right as the first shots of machine gun fire ring out. The Pixies
scatter too, verniers on the Queadlunns flaring as their shoulder mounted
cannons swing into place on their gimbals.
"Guess we found something after all!" A cable blasts out of the side of the 25G
as Michael tethers himself to a larger asteroid, sniper unfolding as he lines
up a shot.
"So this is what the much-discussed Galaxy's been hiding" Leon makes a noise of
exertion as he dodges another spray of beam fire. "I'm not going down today,
though!" he shouts, firing back with his own Gunpod.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Kaminaga has posed.
The A-Weapon is a light civic defense craft, at its heart, but sometimes you
just only have a beater of a plane to work with. Shinji stares down the center
camera with an unflinching affect. "Active vessels," he reports on comms.
"Four VF-type space superiority aircraft firing on an unknown target. No
return fire. Possibly an attempt to erase evidence." His finger rubs over a
silver rod in his hand, thoughtful. But not yet. Is this a battle he should
interfere with? It is within humanity, but it is also a battle involving the
fate of stars and other races.
He grabs the controls and veers. "Taking fire," he reports, and returns fire
with blasts from the A-Weapon's neutron beam. It's a decently nimble machine,
but...
Can it even survive, in combat against a machine from beyond the top of the
line in its own native habitat?
*
"Agent Kaminaga appears to be in danger," Volfogg murmurs. "If need be, I'll
have Gunglue and Gundober manually prepare the reflector beams--"
Hiroko shakes her head, slightly. "He's a wily one. He'll figure something
out," she murmurs, and then takes a deep breath and grabs her own behind. "You
have to believe in your buddy! Even when he sucks!" she yells.
Volfogg hangs out at GGG so this is only kind of weird behavior: "...on this,
we agree."
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The battle quickly ramps up as the two sides start exchanging fire. The
Lucifer pilots appear to have quick reflexes and their machines are designed
to take advantage of that as they quickly dart out of the way of the mix of
weapons fire that comes their way. They respond with accurate shots from their
beam gunpods and well timed barrages of micro-missiles.
Thankfully, the Lucifers are outnumbered. And those fighting them are
quite skilled themselves. Eventually the Lucifers start to take damage. A well
placed shot from Michael finally pierces straight through one of them, causing
it to explode.
The other three on Pixie Team, led by Klan, are able to leverage their
teamwork to surround another and pepper it with shots from tri-barrel pulse
guns, tearing it to shreds though it remains intact.
That's two down. The other two are focusing on Leon and Shinji. One in
battroid mode firing multiple shots from the long beam gunpod in its hands at
Leon. The other chases after Shinji in fighter mode, unleashing a blossoming
spread of micro-missiles to home in on his craft.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
Leon transforms to Battroid and blocks two beams from the Lucifer with his
barrier shield, returning fire with the 25A's singular head cannon.
"Ghk... I hate doing this..." The Messiah's Gunpod snaps open with a hiss,
spinning up and putting a burst of fire through the Lucifer with a leading
shot. Leon winces as it detonates in a hail of fire and energy. Across the
battlefield, Michael and the Pixies have already dealt with their dance
partners.
"Siegfried 1, all hostiles dealt with."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Kaminaga has posed.
Shinji curves and swerves his A-Weapon, darting as best he can around a frankly
superior craft's weaponry. His gaze is as stony focused as ever, though for
once that intensity feels deserved.
He won't die here. He will not allow Shinji Kaminaga to die again in this
place. There are things yet undone. But with eyes on him, dare he transform?
Maybe he doesn't need to. He banks hard, releasing his own wave of Collins
Missiles in counterpart to the Lucifer's, letting them seek and crash into
each other. That buys him moments - milliseconds. He thumbs the trigger of the
Beta Capsule, and red light fills the cockpit.
A heartbeat, with which to perceive the world of the Planck Brain with greater
eyes than these.
The A-Weapon fires a single neutron shot directly into the surrounding gravity
distortions, where it whips and whirls, redirected a half-dozen times through
other realities before firing back out behind the Lucifer, raking a lance of
light across its hull.
Kaminaga releases a breath he didn't realize he was holding. His hand rises to
his chest with the most shock he's ever shown on his face at the reflexive
action.
"Kaminaga. Hostile down," he affirms.
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
The last two of the Lucifers are taken out. Two of them remain
relatively intact, the one the three Pixies managed to shred and the one that
Shinji raked with a beam. So to that end, Wilder orders, "Pixie Team, recover
those Lucifer wrecks and return to the Quarter." Wilder rubs his beard
thoughtfully, "Perhaps we can learn more about their origin."
Of course, that just leaves whatever it is that the Lucifers were
fighting. It's hard to spot amongst the tight debris field, especially after
all the destruction the Lucifers had wrought. But a larger piece of rock does
float away to partially reveal the remains of a ship. Likely what had been the
target of the Lucifers and confirming Shinji's suspicion that they were trying
to destroy evidence.
As the find is relayed to the Quarter, Ram analyzes the information and
confirms, "The vessel is registered as a research ship belonging to the 117th."
Wilder nods approvingly at the find, quickly ordering, "Siegfried 1.
Agent Kaminaga. Please prepare a path and board the vessel." He then turns to
look at person standing beside him, "Monica, join them and see what you can
find."
Monica nods quickly, "Understood."
A short time later a shuttle flies off the Quarter, passing by the
Pixie Team as they drag the heavily damaged Lucifers back. The shuttle quickly
reaches the shipwreck, maneuvering in to dock.
Soon enough Monica disembarks through the airlock, wearing a
tight-fitting spacesuit. She joins Leon and Shinji inside, flashing them a
smile, "I'll be relying on you two."
Indeed, the wreck certain lives up to that description, being quite a
mess as a result of previous battle damage, impacts from planetary debris and
a recent attempt at destruction. It's not a safe place, but it needs to be
searched.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
"Roger, moving in to scope it out." The 25 parks in GERWALK on the ship and
Leon exits in EX-Gear, nodding to Monica and giving her a thumbs up as he
clutches the rifle.
"What a wreck. Sure hope there's something left to find in here," Leon flicks
the flashlight on the rifle, illuminating the space to reveal even more damage
and degradation. The EX-Gear drifts slowly through the empty, ruined hallways
of the destroyed vessel.
"Bridge should be thisaways," Leon says, motioning forwards.
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Kaminaga has posed.
"Understood," Kaminaga says into radio, and swerves the A-Weapon toward the
indicated vessel. His gaze searches the darkness like he could see perfectly
well in this world of stars.
The A-Weapon transforms as it lands, turning into a stumpy stomper of a robot.
But, even that's too large for this place, and soon Shinji disembarks. He has
a GGG-styled space suit, clunky and pressurized, with a
presumably-not-actually-glass cylindrical helmet.
He has a pistol. "Agreed," he says to Leon's comments. "But if they deployed
top-end units here - now, long after the events - in response to the mere
possibility of our expedition's return, then, it stands to reason they believe
something is here to be found."
<Pose Tracker> Alto Saotome has posed.
"It also suggests they knew we were coming here... Or assumed as much."
Monica adds to Shinji's comments as she joins the two.
Monica follows along with Leon as they move through the dark halls,
passing several open and closed doors on the way. Peeking in, they are fairly
typical of a spaceship. Storage rooms, access to ships systems, personal
quarters. Some of the rooms are filled with the vacuum-preserved corpses of
the crew. Primarily engineering and research personnel judging by the
equipment and attire.
Reaching the bridge, they find that half of it has been crushed by a
large rock. But examining the other half, Monica finds a bunch of dead
consoles. She muses, "I expect main power ran out years ago when the fuel was
exhausted." However, a dimly flashing light from one console draws her
attention. She moves over to it...
"But emergency power was never activated... There was likely no one
left alive to do so." With a few button presses, she is able to engage that
emergency power. Lights flicker to life across the ship, terminals flashing up
boot sequences before quickly spamming out error codes due to damaged systems.
Monica takes a look before saying, "We can flash the system storage and try
and repair it back on the Quarter." It's a bit of a wait while she does this,
but finally she seems to finish.
"We should search the rest of the ship as well..."
Searching the rest of the vessel-at least the parts still
intact-reveals more of the usual rooms one would find on a spaceship. Most of
them don't contain anything useful. But one of them does prove to be somewhat
unique. At the center of the vessel, a large laboratory of some kind. Given
its place in the ship's layout, its thankfully been spared most of the
destruction that the rooms closer to the outer hull have suffered.
There's nothing particularly off-putting about this lab. It's not like
the kind of disturbing facility you might find a mad scientist occupying.
There aren't any horrible experiments lying around, or dangerous looking
machines. It looks like a fairly standard research lab that was well
maintained before everything went down.
There are some physical files still around, either inside cabinets or
floating around freely in the zero-g. Most of them fall into the category of
either published textbooks (primarily focused on the subjects of Biology and
Fold Science) or hand written notes. The latter of which make frequent
references to Vajra and the observations and theories being made about them.
What draws Monica's attention most though is the computer workstations
lining one of the walls. She floats over to one of them and access it, saying,
"Looks like it has its own separate file storage. I'll flash this one as well."
Monica plugs in the storage device, starting the download. While its
going though, something draws her attention on the screen. She taps in a few
commands and is able to access a video file. She puts it up on one of the
lab's large screens.
It appears to be security footage of this very lab. It's partially
degraded, but the content is still fairly easy to make out. There are
currently three people in the shot. An older woman wearing a labcoat, in a
wheelchair. A younger woman also wearing a labcoat and who appears to be quite
pregnant. And a young, blonde-haired boy who can't be more than a few years
old.
The two woman appear to be working while the boy is playing in the
corner. But then the pregnant one lets out a quiet gasp of surprise, then
smiles and says, "Wow, the baby is being quite active today. Looks like we
might have a little athlete on our hands." The young boy looks on curiously,
so the woman gives him a grin and asks, "Do you want to feel? Come here,
Brera." The boy walks over and the woman takes his hand, placing it on her
large stomach. A moment later, the boys eyes widen in surprise and he smiles.
The woman giggles at the response, "That's your little sister!"
The scene continues on for a little while before the sound of an
automatic door sliding open can be heard. Another woman walks into frame, a
rather familiar woman with blue hair who is also wearing a labcoat. Monica
actually gasps in surprise at the sight, "That's impossible!"
The footage continues, the blue-haired woman asking, "Doctor Nome,
Ranshe, have you been able to look over my proposal yet?"
The older woman hmms thoughtfully, "A very fascinating idea. Using fold
quartz and cybernetic implants to create an imitation of the Vajra fold
network between humans. Though I'm sure many would have concerns with such an
application."
The blue-haired woman counters, "But just think of the possibilities!
With this we'd be able to end war. End crime. There'd be no racism, no class
divisions, no hatred. No reason at all for humanity to fight amongst itself.
Everyone would be equal!"
The pregnant woman frowns, "That may be true Grace... But we would lose
ourselves to such a thing. All that makes us unique, special, would be
removed." Rather than simply providing negative criticism, the woman tries to
be constructive, "Perhaps if you focused the real-time communication aspects
of the network? To establish a galaxy wide fold network connecting all the
distant planets of humanity in real-time communication... It would bring us
closer together!"
The blue-haired woman doesn't seem convinced though, "Would that really
solve anything? It'd just provide more ways for the societal elite to exploit
others. Or for corporations to hoard wealth and scientific progress. We can't-"
Unfortunately the video footage cuts out there due to degradation...
Monica is still frowning though, "Grace O'Connor... This recording is
two decades old, yet she has literally not aged a day. I also wasn't aware she
was a member of the research fleet..." It seems they've found something after
all.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
Leon stands in silence as he watches the video play out, shuffling awkwardly
with his rifle. This is a lot to take in. Hiveminds? Implants? Is this what's
really going on? His thoughts turn to Alto. He wonders if he knows anything
about this. There is one thing he does know, though.
"Hey, Aisha? You're probably going to want to take a look at this."
<Pose Tracker> Shinji Kaminaga has posed.
Shinji follows. He's an analyst, foremost, and so he takes in the scene,
assessing. There's much GGG will want to know about this; much SSSP will want
to know, too. Studying kaiju is not so unusual, but...
The woman, Grace, speaks of uniting all under one glorious thought. One
glorious light. His lips twitch. A fire ignites in him. No. Not that. The loss
of human uniqueness...to transform it...it doesn't matter what would emerge.
It would not be the humanity he has found.
His attention flicks to Monica. "There are many ways to prolong one's life.
Still."
A faint twitch at the eyes, intent, as he contemplates the now-blank monitor.
"...is humanity such a terrible thing, to seek solutions to it...?" he murmurs.