ABS FIESTA REDUX

[NoZoner]

"I'm from Vierte, but I had to give up my citizenship to fly for Aesthia." He sighs, slightly homesick. "What about you? I'm guessing... Mercana?"

"Yep, you guessed it. Moved to Aesthia fifteen years ago. Mercana's nice, and I miss the weather, but it's too expensive to live there nowadays."

Ash notices the voices fading back into the background din of the carrier. The handful of deck crewmen that stopped to gawk at the commotion are slowly returning to their tasks.

"Vierte, huh? I'm surprised. I actually thought you were Aesthian this whole time. What brought you to the Coalition?"

[Ad Bot]

[Mr. Hurricane]

"I already tied my own noose by being here," Jaakko remarks.

[Gojira]

"Yep, you guessed it. Moved to Aesthia fifteen years ago. Mercana's nice, and I miss the weather, but it's too expensive to live there nowadays."

Ash notices the voices fading back into the background din of the carrier. The handful of deck crewmen that stopped to gawk at the commotion are slowly returning to their tasks.

"Vierte, huh? I'm surprised. I actually thought you were Aesthian this whole time. What brought you to the Coalition?"

"Believe it or not, a desire to get out of Vierte. I'd lived in the slums for most of my life until I found a group that let me fly. It was sort of based off of the Viertan Air Force. I found that was what I wanted to do, then tried to find somewhere that would take me. I gave up my citizenship to join a commissioning program at an Aesthian university, and now, five- no, six years later, here I am. What about you? Was it just cost of living, or was there something else?"

[NoZoner]

"No, that's pretty much it. I was still living with my folks at the time. Really, they made the decision to move. My mom used to serve as a marine in the Coalition, so moving to Aesthia was a bit of a no-brainer," Ash recounts, "Being a fighter pilot was something I decided on since I was a little boy, between mom's military background and dad being an airline pilot. Lorens thought the same thing, and he joined the academy not too long after I earned my wings."

Ash brings the chocolate bar closer to him and cradles it in his hand, stroking his thumb rhythmically over the wrapper. "Never thought I'd end up fighting with the Imperials," he mutters.

"Hey," Ash speaks up again, "Thanks for hearing me out. When stuff hits the fan like this, I always feel like I need to reach out to someone. Hell, I made a real forgetin' dumbass of myself, what, with the stupid attention-grab back there," he ends with a chuckle.

[Gojira]

"...trust me, I understand. I've been letting my feelings bottle up over the past few hours, and so I'm still trying to get over the fact that I'm here, on an Imperial ship, now facing my friends. I didn't have anyone I could talk to anymore. Once we landed, I felt, and I sort of still feel, totally alone."

You abandoned them. You turned on your friends. you Ark-damned coward. You deserve to be alone.

Markus sighs, and pushes the thoughts out of his head for a moment.

[NoZoner]

Ash's smile drops for a bit.

"You're... You're not alone," he puts a hand on Markus' shoulder in assurance, "You have us. Forget the Imperials. We're still a team, and we answer only to our own. Am I wrong?"

[Gojira]

"...no, you're right. We'll get through this."
Markus smiles a little bit.
"Thanks, I really needed to hear that."

[Tayasaurus]

It hasn't been easy for everyone, when we were told what we were supposed to do on this particular mission Nagato and I were quick to speak out, but...

"No, I don't imagine it was easy."

Tippy pulls out a pack of cigarettes

"I don't generally smoke, but I think this calls for it. You got a light?"

[Qwepir]

"No, I don't imagine it was easy."

Tippy pulls out a pack of cigarettes

"I don't generally smoke, but I think this calls for it. You got a light?"

Musashi excuses herself and goes to get a lighter from Xiaomei. She sits back down across from you and hands you the lighter.

[Tayasaurus]

Tippy accepts the lighter and lights one up. She takes a long puff and lets the smoke flow out of her. She begins to speak, first in Aesthian but then slowly merges into Kintharian with a colder tone. The words flowed from her mouth a little rough due to her accent, but the more she spoke the more clear it became.

"So, a bit of a question. It was nice for you to go out of your way with Nagato to reach out and all during the whole, threatening our lives thing. ["But whats really got me curious is what happened on the carrier prior to when we left it."]

Tippy takes another puff and lets the smoke out again, this time going out the bottom of her jaw from some unknown seam. She continues to speak

["I don't believe in coincidences. Prior experience and the like... kind of keeps me on edge..."]

Tippy offers a cigarette from her box, still looking at Musashi.

["You wouldn't happen to... know anything about that... would you?"]

[NoZoner]

"Thanks, I really needed to hear that."

Ash smiles and pats Markus on the shoulder. "Anytime."

[Qwepir]

Tippy accepts the lighter and lights one up. She takes a long puff and lets the smoke flow out of her. She begins to speak, first in Aesthian but then slowly merges into Kintharian with a colder tone. The words flowed from her mouth a little rough due to her accent, but the more she spoke the more clear it became.

"So, a bit of a question. It was nice for you to go out of your way with Nagato to reach out and all during the whole, threatening our lives thing. ["But whats really got me curious is what happened on the carrier prior to when we left it."]

Tippy takes another puff and lets the smoke out again, this time going out the bottom of her jaw from some unknown seam. She continues to speak

["I don't believe in coincidences. Prior experience and the like... kind of keeps me on edge..."]

Tippy offers a cigarette from her box, still looking at Musashi.

["You wouldn't happen to... know anything about that... would you?"]

Musashi declines your offer of a cigarette.
: [What happened on the carrier?]

[Tayasaurus]

Musashi declines your offer of a cigarette.
: [What happened on the carrier?]

["Well, a very critical and very vital part of the carrier just happened to have a major malfunction. We thought we were under attack and scrambled our fighters... then you showed up. Now, I'm not a rocket scientist or any stuff like that but, if that little problem wasn't fixed, it certainly left a carrier full of good men and women vulnerable. So, I know that much but, i'd have to ask you to tell me the rest."]

Tippy flicks her half finished cigarette away and crushes it under her boot.

["And then, one of my crew lost control of her Wyvern. Most of the people here speculate that one of you was controlling it, but to me that's too inconvenient. Too which, I don't quite remember who it was that implied it; one of your members confirmed some tampering. I don't think it was any of you. But I do believe someone back on the carrier was doing it. So tell me, Musashi, what did happen on my carrier? You wouldn't lie to me, right? Since I did in good faith on your claims go with you to this enemy vessel."]

[Qwepir]

["Well, a very critical and very vital part of the carrier just happened to have a major malfunction. We thought we were under attack and scrambled our fighters... then you showed up. Now, I'm not a rocket scientist or any stuff like that but, if that little problem wasn't fixed, it certainly left a carrier full of good men and women vulnerable. So, I know that much but, i'd have to ask you to tell me the rest."]

Tippy flicks her half finished cigarette away and crushes it under her boot.

["And then, one of my crew lost control of her Wyvern. Most of the people here speculate that one of you was controlling it, but to me that's too inconvenient. Too which, I don't quite remember who it was that implied it; one of your members confirmed some tampering. I don't think it was any of you. But I do believe someone back on the carrier was doing it. So tell me, Musashi, what did happen on my carrier? You wouldn't lie to me, right? Since I did in good faith on your claims go with you to this enemy vessel."]

: [I was told that the Wyvern was going to be modified to receive remote controls on the last submarine resupply. An operative... not one of us, was supposed to control it- probably from the same sub? I don't know. As for the carrier, I do not know what happened to it. Maybe it was attacked by an underwater-launched missile. Something had to happen to get you to launch, I suppose, we weren't going to attack your entire carrier group with just the four of us...]

[Tayasaurus]

Tippy stands up, switches back to Aesthian and because to laugh softly.

"Is this it then? Is this what my life has been leading up to? Those men and women on that carrier, for all I know they're dead. It's my fault too, because I didn't stay and fight my friends, Raiden. Was avoiding fighting you really worth a ship full of people? Did they even get to know why they had to die?"

She turns to Musashi still looking at her from the ground, still grinning but from stress.

"Oh my Gods, Musashi. I think I'm getting ready to fight everyone."