2025-01-11: An 'Angel' gets her 'Wings'
- Log: 2025-01-11
- Cast: Doctor Rebecca Frankford, Flay Allster, Aurora Dusk, Emily Ashcroft, Lilium Valerie
- Where: Classified location, Side 7
- OOC - IC Date: January 11th, Universal Century 0100
- Summary: A selection of Gaia Sabers personnel are briefed on one of the organisation's latest projects. CONTENT NOTE: This scene contains descriptions of moderate body horror.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Located furthest from the moon, Side Seven has always been the Earth Sphere governments' favorite place to hide their secrets... so much so, in fact, that it's become Cliche.
In a now long-gone colony, Operation V, the Federation program that would win the now-infamous title of 'Gundam' once took place, and those in the know typically believe that the farless famous other candidates for the name were developed in the region as well...
Several years later, its Mark Two successor was developed in an industrial colony built alongside it...
That industrial colony, Gryps, was later converted into the Colony Laser that sits unused in its shoal zone...
And now... something else. Something different.
In one of the many tiny, irrelevant asteroid bases NUNE inherited from its predecessor state, a small briefing is being assembled. The hall is mostly empty, but those who are in attendance--A.A.L. holders, high ranking officers and their representatives--Are justifiably few in number. The room is brightly-lit, with a large viewscreen at the front and no windows, and for the moment is full of idle chatter. What to do about the nation's... problems, how much time they had to take out of their schedules to be here, the weather on the Britannian mainland... the usual subjects.
At the front, standing upon a podium, a middle-aged woman--Dark-haired, with the rank insignia of a Lieutenant Colonel hastily pinned onto her labcoat--Coughs into her microphone.
"Ahem-Could I have your attention; please?"
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Side 7... the birthplace of 'Gundam'. They always did say that Heliopolis Colony met an eerily similar fate to the unnamed colony that housed Operation V and other Federation mobile suit projects, in the way that history often rhymes. But Flay has never been this far out into space, and while she waits out the shuttle ride bringing her here, she wonders what business the Gaia Sabers possibly need her for here. She hasn't been told what the briefing was about, anyway.
The ride, and her escorting to the briefing hall all go smoothly enough, but when she goes to take a seat, Flay recognizes that she isn't really familiar with many of the other attendees, at least not personally. Many of them are much higher rank than she is, she surmises. It might just be her family name and reputation that landed her a seat here, and indeed she catches some spare glances and murmurs as she goes to sit down. At times like this, she might just absently stare out the window until it's time to begin... but there's no windows to stare out of here.
Whatever this is, it's going to be something top secret, isn't it? A woman begins to speak wearing a... labcoat. Without really thinking about it, Flay's grip of her pen over her notebook tightens. And when the Lieutenant Colonel asks for attention, she has it. "This is too weird," She mutters irreverently under her breath before it's time to begin.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
Both Aurora and her mentor have been invited to this out of the way asteroid base, but neither is fully certain what the briefing is actually FOR. Just that it's relevant to their expertise. Emily's expertise, really, and isn't THAT an ominous thing to be told?
The two naturally gravitate towards the people they already know in the audience - which amounts to each other and Flay. Aurora acknowledges her with a nod, and Emily mumbles "Lt. Allster."
"I'm not actually sure what this is about," the Colonel admits as she corrects her posture, trying not to slouch lazily. (Not entirely truthful, not completely a lie. She's used to that kind of line. Still, she tries her best, leaning towards Flay slightly and lowering her voice. "Insignia pinned on a labcoat... hasty job." Aurora cuts in shortly after. "That's a doctor who got a... courtesy rank? They're... uh, medical." She emits an uncertain noise.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
The room quietens down... eventually, and the rustling of papers can be heard over the room's PA system as the woman shuffles her notes. "Thank you, thank you. Now then."
She clears her throat. "My name is Lieutenant Colonel--well.. that's more of a formality... Doctor Rebecca Frankford. I'm the lead... researcher here." She takes a breath, and gestures to two people behind her. "On my left--"Dr. Frankford points out a balding middle-aged man wearing a suit with a pocket protector"--is Mr. Keith Reginalds, our consulting engineer, and on my right--"She turns to point out a somewhat out of place woman wearing sunglasses, her arms crossed"--is... Ms. Arcfeldt, our interim Public Image Manager."
This brings something of a murmur from the crowd, but the Doctor gestures them to quiet down. "I promise you--this will make sense. Lights, please?"
The lights are dimmed, and the screen behind her flickers to life. It displays a loose collage of photographs, muted archival footage, and gun camera recordings dating back decades:
A video of a pink haired girl with a golden hairpin; singing in an open field with the windows of a PLANT behind her.
A blurry image of a bright red Valkyrie streaking through space.
Extremely grainy footage from the underside of a primitive Variable Fighter, showing... something happening on an island somewhere on earth.
More legible gun camera footage--so high quality, in fact, that the timestamp and pilot identification ('2LT-L.VALERIE') can be made out; quite clearly showing the Lagos Anti-Vajra operation. In specific, the Variable Bomber the operation revolved around's unfortunate fall--and miraculous rescue.
Footage of a young woman with deep blue hair performing a slow, emotional song on the bridge of a vessel.
A photograph of several men in labcoats posed around what looks to be a large black box. It has a single glowing red eye.
"I'll be blunt with you here. There's a field of warfare we've been ignoring for the past fifty years--and we've fallen behind significantly."
A laser pointer is taken out, and directed to each box in turn. "This is a possibility that the general staff office has, historically, been fairly reluctant to accept--more reluctant than Newtype warfare, even--but... recent events have forced them to take a less... dogmatic approach to it. To put it bluntly: How many incidents since the switch to the U.C. Calendar have been directly resolved, or precipitated, not by politicians or soldiers, but by Singers? Even if you discount every use of Culture Shock against the Zentradi after Space War One... it's a suspicious ammount, isn't it?"
Doctor Frankford's gaze turns back out to the assembled officers.
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
At least there's someone here Flay knows, when Aurora and Colonel Ashcroft enter the hall. She's built up a decent rapport with Aurora after the missions together, and she actually does trust the Colonel, so she gives Aurora and Colonel Ashcroft a small smile and quick salute respectively, before turning her focus back to the podium. "Right, and I noticed the labcoat, too..." Flay nods, when they point out the makeshift rank insignia pinned onto it. It doesn't exactly bring her much comfort.
And the assembled names, and their titles... tells Flay that this is not a mission briefing. This is a project, of whatever sort. In the stagnant state this world has come to, perhaps such a thing is necessary for the Gaia Sabers to maintain their power to protect the Earth Sphere. She looks to Colonel Ashcroft, who seems to have the best idea of what's going on between them... and then forward, as the lights dim.
"Lacus..." Flay murmurs quietly at first, loud enough for Aurora and Emily to maybe hear. Flay wonders for a moment whether this is going to be related to another impromptu briefing she'd recently received - about the coup in Tokyo, and the secret of several births in Mendel Colony. It's not information she volunteers... she made a promise after all. As her eyes track across the rest of the collage, it seems more evident they're going for the musical angle, though she's not familiar with that strange black box.
She thinks she knows where this is going. Flay listens to Dr. Frankford's words about all the conflicts that have been resolved through song, and then boldly raises her hand. "Is it suspicious, or is it obvious?" She asks, a little bluntly. "Even if not everyone likes to admit it, people are driven by emotion more than anything. When you think of it that way, it's easy to send a message when you put it into a song." She finds she struggles to meet Doctor Frankford's gaze, as she says it.
"But is this really just about sending a message?"
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
"That's right." Again, this woman should probably have been a teacher. She clearly enjoys it. "That's a doctor with an effective rank... and Lieutenant Colonel is a high one," the Colonel muses. "The highest we've ever seen was a Major... some Japanese microbiologist? Not important."
Emily turns to Flay when Flay turns to her, sensing that she's being asked to explain... whatever's going on. "Unfortunately, we're not totally sure what this is either." Aurora shakes her head. "No. Me neither."
But when Lilium comes up, the two put some things together. Neither speaks, but... they're beginning to figure out what might come next.
"Yeah. That's Lacus." Aurora doesn't really have any emotional attachment to Lacus. Never met her. "I don't really listen to her music that much..." Does Flay, she wonders?
'Reluctant to accept Newtype warfare.' Aurora snorts. Emily rolls her eyes.
The two decide to let Flay take the lead in asking questions, but between Lilium disappearing and the musical exams... this is going somewhere.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Dr. Frankford frowns, but nods along with Flay's explanation. "Mhmm... Yes, Ms. Allster, that would be the conventional explanation... and a decent bit of the unconventional one, frankly." She nods again, this time more approvingly. "A message--a culture--is most easily transmitted through song, not the spoken word or the Quantum Brainwave--but why does music affect our emotions so?"
She advances the slide. It's more Space War One footage--a whole Zentradi fleet turning about and firing on their allies. "Why does it drive us to act in such irrational ways? Is it... something we can understand?"
She advances the slide again. More Lagos footage this time--Vajra breaking formation and falling into disarray. The timecode and pilot ID is conspicuously absent this time. "Something we could potentially predict? Or maybe..."
A grin comes onto Dr. Frankford's face as she switches to the next slide. This time, it's video footage of the SDF-01 Macross rising from its berth unprompted in the midst of a concert, with an entire audience staring fixedly into space. The increased light from this backing reflects off of her glasses...
"...Is it, perhaps, something we can replicate, mhm?" The slide is moved forwards, this time to the blueprints of what looks to be a variable fighter. The designation 'YF-23 RHONGOMYNIAD' is inscribed upon its top left corner. The doctor makes no attempt to explain its relevance, at least for the moment.
"We don't know, exactly, what makes your Lynn Minnmays, your... what was his name again, Nekki Basaras... your Ranka Lees, your Sheryl Nomes... But we do have some vague idea how their power over the emotional side of the human mind works. The right acoustic cue here, the proper inflection on a lyric there... if you get a good enough singer, and you get them loyal to your cause, you've practically won the propaganda war already. The SAL knows this very, very well, as I'm sure you're all aware..."
She sighs, leaning against her podium, before continuing. "Which means we have a lot of slack to pick up if we want to compete. Which brings me to the imagery behind me--I'd like to introduce you to the YF-23 Rhongomyniad. Familiar? I wouldn't think so, unless you're a BatoOpe type... and in that case, I expect you'll be asked to deposit your security clearance on the way out."
She cracks a wry smile, and a few faint chuckles can be heard from the assembled audience... but not too much. Mr. Reginalds, notably, is scowling. "Right, right... more seriously... The twenty-three was meant to be the Federation's next model of mass-production Variable Fighter--something that could close the gap between mass-production units like the Nineteen and special operations models like the Twenty-Two. Mr. Reginalds here was one of its designers, actually." This reduces the man's frown somewhat, but he still doesn't seem happy to be here.
"...As I'm sure you're all aware, this never came to pass. Variable Fighters were considered far too expensive for something that filled such a similar niche to Mobile Suits, and the focus shifted to cheaper models like the One-Seventy-One; with most high-performance VFs nowadays being the exclusive territory of Private Military Companies and terrorists. What was already completed of the prototype was mothballed in a certain warehouse in the Side Seven region--This base, in fact, alongside several other pieces of relevant technology that I'm not privileged to divulge at this time. If you need to know more, you'll be told when you do."
"Although the NUNE Government's stance on Variable Fighters as a Mobile Weapon standard hasn't particularly changed since the collapse of the federation--for our purposes, something that had certain... associations was extremely beneficial. Why, you ask?"
"Because, ladies and gentlemen, here at this base, the Boosted Songstress project has been engineering the next Lynn Minmay--a direct improvement, one that can pacify not just strange and unknowable aliens, but our fellow man."
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Neither Emily nor Aurora had a clear idea of what this is about, and Flay is willing to believe them. This was above even a Colonel's clearance level, it seems. When Aurora picks up on her comment of Lacus, Flay doesn't say anything to suggest she knows her. Best not to open that can of worms. Instead, she just remarks, "More of a Ranka fan, aren't you?" Aurora seemed pretty fired up when they had to rescue the Monster, then again, anyone would be.
Speaking of the Koenig Monster... it was part of the guncam footage in the collage, wasn't it? It's probably just to show Ranka's importance in the anti-Vajra missions - they couldn't do it without her. Flay doesn't really pick up on the fact that the identity of the pilot who recorded the footage could be relevant, even if she was vaguely aware Lilium had been 'reassigned' since that battle.
But what does it all mean? Flay listens to Dr. Frankford's response... she was half correct, it seems. She finds it somewhat difficult to follow the other half of the explanation. She understands soft power so well it's something she takes for granted. Asking why it works the way it does isn't something that'd cross her mind so easily.
Still, she turns the prompt around in her head a little. "Because it's universal, right?" She considers. "Not everyone speaks the same language, and not everyone can communicate like a 'Newtype' can. But anyone with working ears knows what music sounds like." And indeed, what Dr. Frankford seems to imply, is that music is uniquely able to influence anyone.
The part about the Rhongomyniad and Variable Fighters flies over her head a bit until she's given the explanation. It's always been mobile suits she's been entangled with... but even she was taught about the Zentradi War in school, even if it's beginning to slip out of public consciousness with each generation. The more important takeaway here is that the Gaia Sabers are looking into ways to design the next Lynn Minmay.
...Through the 'Boosted Songstress' Project. Flay's grey-blue eyes narrow, when she hears that word, 'Boosted', instantly mapping it to those young men Murata Azrael sent out to die at the end of the Bloody Valentine War. This time, for some reason, her gaze turns over to Aurora for a moment. "Boosted Songstress...?" Before she settles back onto the Doctor. "Then the goal is to enforce peace and prevent war... by using the human heart as its own weapon?" There's some discomfort in her tone as she asks this. "Then what would you have us do... to support such a project?"
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
The rhetoric the doctor deploys is going somewhere extremely obvious to the two Newtype lab dwellers. But they follow along regardless.
"...I like Fire Bomber, actually." Aurora thinks Ranka is okay, too. But Fire Bomber is her favourite. Either that or Sheryl...
"Huh. It's Lilium's guncam," Aurora mumbles.
Emily frowns slightly at the BatoOpe comment. "Pfft. I know better than that." She leans forwards slightly as Frankford drops hints at... something.
'Boosted Songstress' catches both of their attention, and they start. Frankly, they were waiting for the other shoe to drop, there. So this is why Emi's relevant here. It's her field of expertise! Mulched children again! Flay turns her gaze to Aurora and Aurora, feeling the prickling feeling of being watched, turns to look at her... but the contact only lasts for a second.
Aurora raises her hand. "Doctor. When you say 'boosted', what does that entail? Is there any continuity with previous projects?"
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Doctor Frankford rests her hands on her hips, nodding proudly. "That's certainly part of it, Ms. Allster. If everyone can understand the general gist of a message, despite not getting the actual words... it's a lot easier to get through." She pauses for a moment. "Which means, of course, that it's the ideal medium for our purposes. Of course, you need to know your audience--and have some way of targeting your song to them. Miracles like the Minnmay Attack only happen when when you hit the right mood at the right time... but if you know what the time calls for, you can deploy the right mood much more consistently.
She turns to Aurora. "There's been... certain research into the field that we're building off of, although their methodology was rather different... they trusted an AI to do it, of all things, and they had a reliable method of gauging emotional data through it... So we had to get creative with the materials we had on hand. The remnants of that program, yes, but also... well, let's just say I'd have called it the Cyber-Songstress project, if it was up to me. Apparently since we're technically augmenting the subject beyond just Quantum Brainwave enhancement, it qualifies her as a Boosted Human... but, frankly, the most crucial work was the Cyber-Newtype procedures. That brings me back to the YF-23--or should I say, ah..."
She advances the slide once again, and it changes... slightly. The wings are larger, swept forwards a little. A sizable chunk of the unit's internals are suddenly blacked out, marked only as 'CLASSIFIED'. Evidently some secrets were still above the pay grade of this presentation... and the unit's designation has changed, too.
"I'd like to present you all with the easier half of our project. Behold, the YF-777SA--That's Songstress Accompaniment, mind you--Seraph!"
She turns eagerly to the audience as if awaiting applause, and then pouts some when (almost) none is forthcoming. "No? I.. suppose it's a bit of a leap... well. This charming wonderweapon is, as far as the general public is concerned, a touring gimmick of the New United Nations Earth's latest pop sensation--but as far as we're concerned, it's the amplifier for her... abilities. It's fitted with all sorts of fancy new toys--Remote speaker pod funnels, Miniaturised positron blaster cannons, a specialized long-barrel gunpod to match the subject's previous training... and quite a lot of hardware inherited from our predecessors."
After a few moments of displaying the blueprints, the Doctor claps her hands; and the viewscreen shuts off--and retracts into the ceiling, revealing a brightly-lit clean room.
"It was incredibly pricy, of course... millions of Gilla, even discounting the price of the initial Rhongomyniad project... but considering the other half of the system has cost us billions to construct, and is incredibly fragile... I'd say it's worth it, wouldn't you?"
The room, as the audience's eyes adjust to it, can be seen to contain two things of note--the Valkyrie from the blueprints, of course, but also.. something else.
Blocking the view of the Seraph, leaving only its wings visible on either side, stands an immense tube, lit softly from the inside by a glowing ring at its ceiling. Suspended inside, taking advantage of the asteroid's microgravity, is the body of a young woman. Or... most of one.
She's in a state that can only be described as partial disassembly... it's a little difficult to make out the details from the viewing gallery, perhaps thankfully... but she's certainly not in one piece, and the mechanical arms inside the cylinder seem to be... integrating things. Machinery, primarily.
"...To answer your question more fully, Lieutenant Dusk--I'd like to introduce you to First Lieutenant Lilium Valerie. In addition to what's arugably one of the most extensive quantum brainwave enhancement regimens since the Gryps conflict--modern procedures are too /efficient/ in terms of how... 'Open' they make the subject for the use-case we're building for here, of course--she's been mounted with artificial lungs to sing for longer periods, near-total synthetic motor controls so we can write choreography directly to her muscle memory... A total personality format was initially considered--(through the thick glass, a sterile-garbed technician can be heard testing potential voices, with phrases like 'Everyone~! Lilium's gonna do her best for the Preservation of your Blue and Pure World,~!' being the most legible)--but ultimately decided against; since the Public Image department thought a down-to-earth girl derived from the subject's original life would be the most marketable to our core demographics... which also means we don't have to come up with a new name for her, thankfully... Her circadian rhythm has been lengthened, so she can be kept awake and operational for significantly longer..."
The Doctor has turned away from her audience at this point, instead admiring her handiwork as she trails off. "...The most difficult part of the program was selecting the subject. If our pretty little angel here had rejected certain implants, we most likely wouldn't have been able to use them again... so we had to go through quite a..." She turns around again. Her gaze lingers on Flay for several moments. "Substantial list of candidates."
Lilium's half-lidded eyes shift somewhat, but remain unfocused. Clearly she's not exactly aware of her surroundings. Which is for the best, of course.
"Regardless... what you can do to support her? Quite literally, support her. Open stan accounts once she debuts. Put your music on your playlists. We need to make the Earth Sphere accept Ms. Valerie as a legitimate star--and that means we need all the help we can get. We've been working on getting Tarabaman First Generation delayed to get her onto the soundtrack, but there's only so much Astroturfing you can do without being accused of being an industry plant... and we need people to be Listening To Her Song without hesitation, am I understood?"
Another gesture from the doctor, and the screen rises again. This time it's covered with concept art: Idol's outfits, concert venues, album covers... The project was clearly well underway.
"So... I trust I can count on all of your support in the days to come? To spread the voice of our miraculous idol far and wide, so she can carve the name of Peace into the hearts of the billions who call this world home?" The doctor places down her notes, having switched from a grin to an outright smile. The glasses are hiding her eyes again. "Because, believe me--if we don't do it, the League will."
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
"Fire Bomber, huh? Didn't really expect that from you," Flay asides to Aurora with a tap of her cheek. "My friend group was always hoping to see a Sheryl concert back on Heliopolis..." She reminisces, and then snaps her attention back to the actual briefing. It's still quite a lot to take in...
And Flay almost resents that she's right, when Dr. Frankford nods proudly at her guess. The way she likens it to a miracle, only to systemically automatize the process. The use of Boosted Human and Cyber Newtype technology. Cathedra would have one believe the Earth Sphere is beyond the days of such things... but Flay supposes that's why they're in some asteroid in the middle of nowhere right now.
She squints as she looks over the specs for 'Seraph', personally designed for this mysterious Boosted Songstress when she goes on tour. The function of the speaker funnels is obvious enough, but they even managed to miniaturize the Archangel's deadly positron cannons? Isn't that... kind of overkill for a morale boosting propaganda trick? Well... that might as well be its own trick, considering the amount of money this woman poured into the thing.
At the end of the day, Flay thinks, it's just a machine. A symbolic one, like the Strike E she frequently pilots... but it's still nothing without its pilot. They wouldn't spend billions on it without her. And so, it's only when that future pilot is shown that the display gets a much more visceral reaction from Flay. Seeing the woman in the tube, in the state she's in, Flay covers her mouth with her hands in what can only be disgust.
She couldn't even make out who she was, so when she hears the name... "N-No way. That's... Ms. Valerie?" She thinks of the relatively down-to-earth Lieutenant she frequently fought alongside, always seemed to have MacDaniels on her... reliable, but sometimes overextended herself. Why did they choose her? Apparently, that's exactly the appeal. Flay uncomfortably shifts in her sheet, when she sees the gaze upon her when the 'list of candidates' is mentioned. She doesn't want to think about what would have happened had she been chosen instead. She can only wonder if Lilium will be happy... to live as the 'Boosted Songstress'.
And when Flay gets an answer on how they can best support Lilium, she can't stop herself from bursting into a fit giggle-laughter, which probably draws more than a few stares. "Ahahaha...! I'm sorry, it's just all so absurd!" She shakes her head, when she hears a middle-aged military doctor talk about 'opening stan accounts'. "I came here to make sure this world never plunges into war ever again, and it turns out all I had to do was make another To-Witter account." Sure, she understands the rhetoric... she understands the power behind manipulating the human heart. But she meant it when she told Elisa Kafim she had foresworn such methods.
Still, she shifts back in her seat, her voice quieting. "Your vision for peace is a bold one. If you really think it's enough... then of course I'd be willing to support it." Flay says, not sure herself whether she is telling the truth. In her heart, when she thinks of Lilium in the pod, and all the enhancement and conditioning she went through - for one, it's certainly not natural. And beyond that... it's just not right, either. "So I guess all I can say is... good luck with your project." She concludes, the displeasure in her eyes remaining hidden for the time being.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Doctor Frankford, blatantly high off of her own successes, nods along eagerly to the clamor that fills the room. "Yes, yes, it's all very silly--but trust me, this is going to work. We've sunk enough resources to restore a sizable amount of the mainland into this girl from the Occupied Historic Kingd-ahem, the AEU's British Holdings," She cuts herself out, having gotten so into the moment she forgot that she still had to maintain some pretenses. "The General Staff Office--no, our financial backers themselves wouldn't have let us do this if this wasn't reliable technology.
The excuse is paper-thin, of course--the support of those assembled in the room didn't matter all that much... but awareness of the program's existence amongst those its product could step on the toes of was vital.
"So, do remember... this is all Top Secret, yes? This doesn't leave this room--anyone outside of it who needs to know will be told by people above your levels. She sighs happily, sitting down in a chair behind her podium, and motions for the lights to be turned back on. "Go on--converse amongst yourselves. Wait for your shuttles. Be aware of what we're doing here, and be sure to preorder our rising star's debut record~"
And, as the crowd slowly files out; in that glass tube, her 'wings' suspended behind her, the so-called angel's half-conscious mind dreams of peace at any cost.