File 13.4 - Survivors' Demands

After a short wait outside of the women’s apartments, Shizuka resurfaced in proper military uniform. She marched ahead of Edgar leaving him to only follow. Though she never went into any sort of detail of what she was planning. “Where ya going, Su?”

“We’re going to…” Distant noise distracted her in mid-thought as she paused. Confused about what the noise was, she looked in the direction of the base gate still quite a distance away. Yet there were people that she could hear. It almost looked like they were gathered, but it was hard to tell.

Curiosity pulled her towards it, not sure what was happening. As she started to get closer and it came more in sight, she could see the mob that gathered outside the base. They filled up the street, unable to get back the gate and guard tower. Three times as many soldiers were on guard trying to keep the peace. “What’s going on?”

“Protesters,” Ed started to explain, “They showed up yesterday after that speech wantin’ answers.” He walked closer to the fence line seeing the number outside grow from the last time he saw them. Shouts for demands to see the representatives of HOPE and military council were the most common. Though others were just as much demanding them to give themselves up to the ECF invaders for the sake of peace. “It’s been gettin’ worse.”

Another news alert notification sounded off from their device. Shizuka and Ed both quickly looked at the report scrolling through the feed. “Fifty dead in suicide bombing…”

Shizuka stared out of the dome’s glass towards the nearest dome visible through the wind. It was not where the attack happened, but the memories of the bombing she was caught in came back. She turned away needing to not be reminded anymore. “Ragnarok…”

“Yea, tha real ones. Thanks to all of tha lies we’ve been feedin’ the media and this, they’re more convinced now than e’er before that we should all die.”

“But Ragnarok mostly operates in the north.”

“Used to.” Ed tried not to mention the attack that Shizuka was in and bring up bad memories. The one that she was in was an anomaly. Ragnarok was a complicated matter born from within Antarctica City and acted directly in the North trying to sabotage the redevelopment and terraforming efforts. Since this was technically viewed as their home, they hardly ever did any violent actions in the city. It was likely partly due to the fragile nature of the city and anything that they did could risk their own movement as well. But that no longer seemed to be an issue for them. “Seems they’ve stopped carin’ about tryin’ tah see e’eryone dead before them and now just want tah die and take as many with them as they can.”

“If they crack a dome…”

“Thousands could die…”

“Damnit, this world’s getting more messed up by the minute!” Shizuka marched away from the scene at the gate. There was nothing she could do. Too many things were happening. She had to focus on one thing. “We’re going to Command.”

“What?! Why?”

“Because we’re at war!”

Ed looked at Shizuka with a bit of dismay as she did not really give him a solid answer. He however could only follow her as she was already on the march. A better answer at the end from her was all he could hope for now. He was not sure she was thinking too straight.

Unfortunately, standing at the door to Command were two guards. The state of war seemed to have heightened security throughout the entire base. Ed remembered noticing more guards on the way as well now that he thought about it. “We’re not getting’ in, Su.”

Frustrated, she crossed her arms and turned away from the two soldiers stopping her. “I can see that.” She marched away expecting Edgar to follow. Command was not the only place that she could go.

“Where are ya going now?”

“To the hangar.” If there was nothing else, she could get something out of Natalie she assumed. The woman had to know something about what was happening. ‘I can try Elizabeth as well if she fails me…’

Down in the AESIR hangar with the Freya under maintenance, Natalie shouted out to the work crews. Even with no fighting, the tension in the room felt like they were expecting an attack in the next hour. It made her wonder how long they had been going like this. The enemy had not attacked them while she had been out, they should be able to rest.

Finishing directions on replacing the shoulder and elbow joints, Natalie turned around to face Shizuka before she even said anything. “You’re awake! You really had me worried there when you collapsed.”

“Y-yes, sorry about that.” The sincerity from Natalie made it difficult for Shizuka to react like she normally would around the adults that did not seem to care about her. With everything that she faced so far the woman genuinely worried about her well being. She deflected the awkwardness to the machine. “Is everything alright?”

“The Freya? After your battle we were finally able to see where there were some flaws in the construction. Your fight really stressed the machine, so we’re doing a complete overhaul now.”

“Will it be ready?”

“Of course! We can have it ready for launch in five minutes!”

There seemed to be pride in the words, despite everything happening around the project and the bastards, as Ed put it, from above she focused on what was in front of her. Shizuka could understand that having seen everything in the world.

“We’re also finally doing tests on the Vanadis, if they give us enough time. It’ll be ready for the next battle.”

More than just pride and focus, Natalie seemed determined. Shizuka could roughly recall in the haze of the activation tests that she had reluctance about the whole thing. She did not seem to want her to pilot the Freya or at least, not the way the higher ups ordered her around. But now there was a different look in her eyes. Shizuka could see that she resolved herself to her work. She was going to give the Freya her all so that Shizuka could pilot without worry. ‘Is this how she’s responded to the war?’ A clear enemy in front of them, hesitation could no longer be allowed, she wondered if that was what she thought.

None of it could be something that she could be certain about. However, it was the same answer she had decided upon as well. ‘Truth or not, I’m not going to find anything out if I don’t survive this war. To survive I’m going to have to fight and there are innocents being harmed.’ The world was not right, but she could only do what she had the power to attain. She was too weak to be able to achieve anything as it stood. “Besides the Freya, do you know what’s happening outside the city? Why the enemy hasn’t attacked us again?”

“I haven’t heard too much, they aren’t really explaining much to us mechanics and engineers. I know that they haven’t made any orders for deployment of the AESIR or stand by orders. So they don’t seem to believe there will be an enemy attack anytime soon.”

“But they had such overwhelming numbers.”

“You pilots were able to hold them off, maybe they’re rethinking their strategy. Right now all I know is that the enemy fleet has surrounded the continent completely cutting off any incoming or outgoing flights, not that there would be anything coming to us.”