2024-06-30: Nothing Ever Changes
- Cutscene: Nothing Ever Changes
- Cast: Elan Ceres, Belmeria Winston
- Where: Asticassia School of Technology
- Date: June 30, UC 0099 (2024)
- Summary: After accruing some real combat data, Enhanced Person No. 4 has a discussion with his medical handler. Spoilers for Witch from Mercury.
"All done."
The youth known as Elan Ceres opens his eyes. Nothing special greets them. The room he's in is sterile and dimly lit, with undecorated stainless steel walls, pneumatic doors, a computer monitoring station, and a Permet testing chair. He's on the chair. The woman speaking to him is at the station.
His gaze crawls her way as the Permet heat crawls out of his skin. As usual, Dr. Belmeria Winston can't quite look him in the eye. He thinks of all the pilots last night who'd been screaming about their various circumstances--specifically, how they'd gotten away from them. And yet they still openly bore countless scars from the experience; were still fighting like they'd been designed to. It was like they'd never left at all. He certainly hasn't.
"What are the results?" he asks quietly, leaning forward to settle his elbows on his thighs. The short sleeves of his pale examination gown rustle around him.
"Everything remains stable. You weren't in a GUND-Arm, so your Permet levels are still the same, and the injuries you sustained were superficial, thankfully. You'll continue to function as you have up 'til now," she says, busying herself with the monitor screens in front of her. "But... Ms. Nugen and the others aren't satisfied. They think you could have fought better."
"I defeated my first enemy and protected Trem Firmal from the second, per my mission."
"But the Zowort Heavy you piloted was wrecked in the process. They think you should have beaten the second one also, and taken less damage from the first. Also..." Dr. Winston hesitates, lips pulling back in a grimace. "...they think you should have been more... decisive."
"Elan" doesn't reply. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is what the company thinks. In this instance, though, perhaps they aren't wrong. He showed the Lion pilot's mercy by only disabling her machine, and she responded by stubbornly opening fire on him afterwards and damned him for not finishing her off when he left her behind to complete his mission parameters. He wonders if she's still alive now, or if someone else on the battlefield finished her off afterwards. He'll probably never know.
"You don't need to worry, though," Dr. Winston adds in a slight hurry, perhaps in response to his silence. The Lion's pilot had hated his silence, too. "The Captain of Chimera Team sent the CEOs some correspondence about your performance. They said you did a good job and your assistance was appreciated. So you won't be punished or anything like that, No. 4. You did well."
Enhanced Person No. 4 thinks of the weapon Trem Firmal, a girl with her own name and her own face, deployed last night. He still doesn't know if she was telling the truth when she said she didn't know what it did, but her Captain must have. The automatons were such an unnecessary weapon. If they wanted to kill everyone on the Sveaborg, surely some form of explosive ordnance would have sufficed. Utilizing a projectile to latch onto the asteroid, drilling through its surface, depositing the automaton payload, building the automatons themselves... It seems like such an overly complicated way of executing dissidents and terrorists. It doesn't make sense to him. It's like their suffering was the point. But perhaps this, too, is business.
He wonders for what else (on whom else) the Captain intends to use that weapon.
"There were always going to be risks sending you into a real combat situation, and you did complete your mission and come back alive. That's the important thing," Dr. Winston is saying, which he barely pays attention to. That is, until she continues, "Next time, you can build on your experience and do better."
An icy lump forms in the pit of his stomach, unpleasantly unfamiliar. He thinks of the blood, the gunfire, the screams on Sveaborg, and looks up. "Next time?"
"Next time Ms. Firmal has a mission," Dr. Winston clarifies unnecessarily.
He stares at his knees. Only days ago, Suletta Mercury had told him in that earnest, nervous way of hers, People shouldn't hurt other people... that's what I think. But it doesn't matter what either of them think. It doesn't even matter what they do. What happened last night would have happened if he'd been there or not; the only difference, perhaps, is that Trem Firmal might have died in the process. "Dragon-4" was just an extra cog to make the blood machine run that much more smoothly. Yet just because he's no more than an extra cog doesn't mean he'll be forgiven. That extra cog is the difference between those in power being inconvenienced or not.
In short: "...I see. So they're going to make me keep doing this," he murmurs.
She glances at him. He can't quite see her expression, and none of it matters anyway. "It shouldn't be too often, or that soon. Ultimately, your top priority is your work serving as Master Elan's double. They won't jeopardize that just for some combat data. Just keep doing a good job here at Asticassia and you'll be fine."
No. 4 doesn't acknowledge her lies. She sounds more like she's trying to convince herself than him, anyway.