Welcome to Gaia! ::

Vyn burst as soon as the door closed behind General King Jet and General Aquamarine.

“Sir!”

Too loud. Ear-splitting, almost. Not quite shrill, but leaning toward it. Vyn had so many thoughts swirling around his head and no time to parse through them. He felt like he might shatter into pieces if he didn’t get them out in the open right that very second.

Unfortunately, he didn’t quite know which thread to begin unraveling first.

“Was that—Did you—The Moon Kingdom—” Vyn forced himself to stop. He took a gulp of air. Then another. “Was that our tech? Did they—Did the Moon Kingdom take it from us, or did we—We helped them, didn’t we? And they didn’t return the favor.”

Vyn had always been more emotional than he knew he should be. He did his best to contain himself, especially now that he was a Commander, aware that the sort of outbursts he often felt capable of could be unbecoming. But in that moment he felt overrun—with shock, and fear, and confusion, and heartache, and homesickness, and despair.

And deep down beneath it all, just beginning to take root against all odds—the tiniest seed of hope.

Andreiya raised a hand to cover the ear closest to Vyn but he was too invested in the questions to huff at the eager--but loud--questioning. His heart was pounding in his ears but even with the Negaverse Agents gone, he watched the door like he was afraid they’d jump back in and continue their interrogation.

He felt oddly caged in, not quite like the walls were shrinking in around him but like they were thinking about it.

Vyn looked at him but he didn’t know what it meant; he looked down at his uniform like he’d find some shameful crumbs or something. There was nothing. He hadn’t shamed the Vanguard by being unkempt. In the absence of structured thought and a clean line of questioning, he recognized that he was grasping for straws just to try and make sense of things. There were too many thoughts rattling in his mind, and too many worries echoing in his heart.

He wanted to badger Lyndin with questions, but at the same time he had nothing more interesting to ask than what Aliez and Vyn had already asked of him.

Commodore Lyndin probably could have handled being bombarded with a long stream of questions, but Andreiya was more concerned that he might forget what he'd asked and wind up confusing himself. He needed to focus, and he needed to take a breath.

Clearing his mind was definitely off the table, but he did the best that he could given the circumstances. Expectantly, he looked at the three in the room and let his eye settle on Lyndin hopefully.

Vyn slapped both hands over his mouth. In his haste to get his thoughts out, it hadn’t occurred to him that there might be others listening in.

Above his stifling palms, Vyn’s eyes grew wide. He would never presume to know the Commodore any better than others in the Vanguard, certainly no better than Aliez and Andreiya, but he had spent a lot of time staring at the Commodore. He had been obsessive about it as a Cadet, embarrassingly so—hungry for any sighting, desperate for even the slightest acknowledgment, beset with a case of hero worship only now beginning to ease into something a little more like companionship. The Vanguard was all any of them had of home here on Earth. That changed people. It had certainly changed Vyn.

What had not changed was his tendency to stare and study and search for minor shifts in the Commodore’s posture, his tone, his expression. In Vyn’s estimation, the Commodore had masterful control of all three. It was what made it so difficult to speculate what thoughts the Commodore might be entertaining.

It was also what allowed Vyn to notice the subtle shifts in each.

Vyn swallowed heavily. He tore his hands from his mouth and scrambled to send his ComTech readings at the Commodore’s instruction, fumbling around a bit with fraying nerves.

“Sir—” He pulled more air into his lungs. His heart would not calm, pounding with more force now than it had in the presence of the General King and his accompanying General. “Was—What the General King said—”

Do you think the Moon Kingdom didn’t help your world because they wanted your resources?

Maybe Vyn was naive to have thought the answer could be anything else. Not that either option wasn’t endlessly cruel.

“So they—”

His thoughts, like his heart, would not calm. Vyn had learned something of handling stress since their first days on Earth, but this turn of events coupled with the approaching danger of the beast that seemed to be on its way to Earth knocked him off kilter, much as he had been after their experiences on Astraya. The weight of it dampened the hope that had only just begun to grow. He couldn’t share the thoughts that had inspired it until he fully understood what they were dealing with.

“Lyndin,” he said, but seemed to choke on it slightly, less used to it than Aliez. It seemed presumptuous, far too daring for someone of his lesser experience, but he didn’t like that Lyndin shared these things without looking at them. “Please, I—Are you suggesting that the General King was right? He was mocking us. He wanted what he said to hurt. But the Moon Kingdom—you’re saying they deceived us? They learned from us and used what they heard to do… this? Whatever this is. Whatever’s happening…”

The messages lit up Lyndin’s ComTech but he still had not moved from where he stood. He might not have moved for longer if it weren’t for Vyn’s impassioned words. There was something fragile enough, desperate enough, that he did not allow himself to be lost to stoicism.

He did not intend to let them be lost to fear and alarm, if he could help it.

“Do not let his words hurt you,” he insisted. “I am not so old that I could be rattled by a child’s words. Whether or not he meant to hurt, it is a curiosity nonetheless. Let them think we are emotionally compromised and desperate for revenge, or whatever human rationale is most easily applied. It all works in our favor.” His eyes drifted back to the ComTech and he seemed to again be processing the information they had obtained.

“It is possible that he was correct,” he admitted. “The Moon Kingdom was not conventionally unkind to us but they were unmoved by our pleas and were eager to send us on our way. I will have to recontextualize our previous conversations but I don’t know if doing so now would only distract us from the more immediate threat.”

He had an understanding over the information, even if only surface level. He knew what he needed to research.

Knowing brought very little relief in the grand scheme of things. He was stacking impossible task upon impossible task.

“We should try to collect more information. I need to contact Velencya, I’ll see if they can provide me anything more to work with. This…”

He looked up again, still in the midst of processing the information they’d sent, but unwilling to let them think he was being deliberately evasive. “...Is not an entirely unexpected complication. We knew Earth was something of an anomaly. Having this much life, this many Senshi, I am surprised they have not faced greater threats. When we first arrived, I warned them that there were other dangers in the universe. I simply believed that Metallia was enough to ward them off.”

A moment passed, but it was clear he wasn’t just trying to buy time. His brows were knit in great thought and, finally, he confirmed, “This is a dangerous situation. If we were on Velencya, I would be rerouting us away from its path and we would probably never have to deal with it beyond standard evasive maneuvers. Earth does not have such capabilities. I don’t think they’re defenseless, I just don’t think they have any idea how to prepare for this. If this prison utilizes our technology, regardless of how it came into possession, perhaps it’s for the best. We would have an advantage if we already understood how it was constructed.”

Advantage or not, he didn’t try to hide the faint bitterness in his voice.

“It’s too early to assume anything, but it would seem we have a bit of time to prepare. We’ll make good use of it. But, you are Commanders. Let me hear your thoughts: what do you think we should do?”

There was so much to process. Aliez felt like he could do nothing but stare up at the Commodore with sad, fearful eyes. Not fear of the Commodore, of course. His loyalty would never waver. His faith and trust in the Commodore was steadfast, even in the face of potential death.

He and the other Vanguard were young in the Commodore’s eyes. Maybe not as young as the humans of Earth, but they had only a fraction of life experience as the Commodore. There was only so much they could do.

He felt dizzy, but he didn’t take a step back. He wouldn’t move away from the Commodore or his friends, especially not when they needed to be unified.

Aliez agreed with Vyn, of course. It was a little alarming to think that they could look at potentially harvesting the energy from the creature.

“What then?” Aliez asked quietly. Not to scold Vyn, because if it gave them more energy to power Velencya, then of course it was something he wanted to try. “Are we going to keep it imprisoned forever? Use its energy as it regenerates?”

And yet… if that was what needed to be done to save everyone…

“Lyndin,” he said just as quietly, looking up at the Commodore, feeling possibly just as uncertain as Vyn. “Is that something we could try? Is it possible?”

He paused again, looking from Vyn to Andreiya, and then over to where the Commodore had placed the device he’d used to scan the energy.

“The indicator light-- when you scanned the energy… it was red,” he recalled, unsure what it meant, but… Surely if it was a good thing, then it would have been another color, possibly.

Or… maybe it was just the color the scanner had for all things…

The thought had a faint flush coloring Aliez’s cheeks, and he lowered his eyes to avoid any looks of disappointment.

Lyndin was unshaken by the frantic inquiries and kept a calmness about him as they sorted through their thoughts and feelings about them.

He waited until they all seemed like they had stopped to take a breath before he answered. Some of their questions might have already been percolating in the back of his mind because he did not need to give them much thought before speaking on them.

“I think it is reasonable to consider an effort to eradicate the creature, if what we know is all correct. If there is to be imminent destruction of a world, the solution is to address the problem. We don’t know much about this creature, except that it has a history of mass destruction, according to legends and lore. We have pictures, and weapons, and stories. But, that we know of, no one has actually laid eyes on it.

“There are significant variations depicted in the murals. Compare the creature’s size in relation to the spikes. Maybe an artistic choice, maybe not. I would like to think that its time imprisoned has left if weakened, but it would be safe to assume that where there is one, there are others. I don’t know what this creature is, or where it came from, in a technical sense. These readings imply a source far beyond our realm of familiarity, so I cannot speak with certainty.”

The situation was still very new to him and there were a great deal of things he was left to immediately consider. “I can assume the prison used its own energy to trap it, which means it can be harvested. A preliminary reading implies this could be converted to a great deal of energy. I believe, with proper refinement, this could charge Velencya for a while longer. I don’t think it will be enough to stabilize it, but a surplus of energy would help balance out what we’re losing.”

If they could access it. No doubt there would be others vying for whatever resources they could scrap from it.

“I have no desire to imprison or trap any living being, whether or not it has the capacity to understand what it is doing. We don’t know if we could provide what it needs in a less destructive way. It is safe to assume that we lack the means to communicate with the creature, but if we could, perhaps we could find a mutual arrangement with it. There are many variables to navigate. The short answer, morality aside, is–yes. We could try to use the energy it’s producing to power Velencya. But, the sample General Aquamarine provided is dangerous. Hence, the red,” he explained. “It needs to be refined so it can be stabilized for use. A sample that small probably won’t cause much issue, not for the Negaverse and their purposes, but in a greater capacity,” he shook his head. “For our use, we’d need a few extra steps. Which may be worth the effort given how lucrative the results could be for us. There are many hypotheticals here already so I don’t want to indulge in any thought that might not benefit us. There may be others,” he said to Andreiya, “but they aren’t our priority right now. Let’s focus on the immediate task and once this is resolved, pending the outcome, we’ll investigate further. We should investigate the creature while we have a chance to. It may be a singularity.” Or, perhaps there was a species out there capable of naturally growing to such sizes. “Without research on the species, I don’t know the specifics of how it could survive, or what it needs to sustain itself. These, too, are worth researching. If we can. It depends on if it will be trapped again, or killed. Let us keep our options open. I don’t know how the people of Earth will choose to proceed but we need to keep that in mind as well.”

Andreiya was right, of course. They didn’t even know where something that big came from. Or how it survived all this time.

But the Commodore’s suggestion that maybe the size of the creature was just an artistic choice… well, it wasn’t as reassuring as Aliez hoped it would be. Especially if there were others.

As a healer, Aliez wanted to give all life the benefit of the doubt. To try and give them a chance to survive. But, as the Commodore continued, there were many variables to navigate.

There were a lot of thoughts and emotions to navigate as well. All the while, the Commodore remained calm and unshaken, of course. Which meant Aliez felt as though becoming too outwardly emotional or panicked would just be seen as childish or unnecessary.

He was a Commander. They all were. Vyn was impassioned and there was nothing wrong with that, in his eyes. He doubted Andreiya would judge him, either. But even though they were welcomed to get to know the Commodore better, there were times Aliez expected a disappointed shake of his head, or reprimand for being too emotionally compromised for their rank.

So after nodding with understanding about the Commodore’s explanation, he did his best to keep his mouth shut and start thinking ahead to how they could focus on the immediate task. His heart felt heavy, but he would do his duty as a Commander to the best of his ability, even though he was certain he didn’t have nearly the amount of experience that the Commodore wanted. None of them did. They hadn’t expected to be thrown into something like this, so what were they supposed to do but their best?

Aliez stood quietly by as Vyn suggested they could ask around. He nodded in agreement, and again when he suggested they inform the rest of the Vanguard. Yes, the sooner, the better.

But then as Vyn continued, Aliez froze.

There was no time to suck in a new breath of air, so he just held what was already in his lungs. His jaw was tight and his stance tense as he stared very intently at the scanner on the table. He didn’t trust himself to blink or to move, afraid that anything he did would give himself away.

Afraid it would give away how much hope Vyn’s words threatened.

How cruel it was to dangle that in front of him. Not that Vyn knew. Not that Andreiya knew. He’d hid it from them -- the fact that he’d talked to Caedus. That he knew the most likely place to find him. That he’d been in touch with him and let him know about the experiments they’d been working on.

Aliez was certain he would give himself away. His eyes were hot, so he cautiously did his best to look away from the others. The Commodore was too busy thinking about other things.

But what if they could do something…? Could this be what they were waiting for? Was that why the Commodore was so tense and bitter about the Vancorium? Could it have been used to help Caedus sooner, if they’d had access to it?

He shouldn’t have brought it up. Vyn shifted from foot to foot again. The Commodore was… not upset, but Vyn knew it was a difficult subject. Aliez was upset; Vyn could sense the tension from him. Vyn didn’t want to upset either of them, or Andreiya. He didn’t want to put hope out there if there was none to be had. Maybe it had been insensitive to do so, given what they might soon face. Hope could be such a fragile thing.

Despite the Commodore’s praise, Vyn half expected to be told he was shortsighted and senseless, that bringing him to Earth had been a mistake. The Commodore had never indicated as much—the opposite, in fact—nor did Vyn truly think he believed such a thing, but the fear lingered anyway. Pride had never been a feature of Vyn’s personality. He never quite knew how to accept praise except to be appreciative while still assuming the worst of himself.

“Yes. Right,” Vyn said. He inhaled slowly and let it out even slower. “Thank you, Sir. I—Aliez, Andreiya, and myself—we can inform the Vanguard, and… share what information General King Jet and General Aquamarine relayed to us. We’ll see what we can all learn of the creature’s origins, its history, the discrepancies in its size, and the storms that accompany it.”

Vyn paused and glanced at Aliez and Andreiya—for support, maybe, or reassurance, or anything he might have neglected to discuss that seemed important. There was so much to be done and they didn’t even know how much time they had to do it in.

He didn’t want to think about what might happen if they failed.

They wouldn’t, he told himself. Failure wasn’t an option.