[X]Historic Scenarios (Moderate)
No. of votes[X]Historic Scenarios (Moderate)
No. of votes: 83
-[X]Single Sweep (Objective. Fairbanks Breach has been subjugated and Saskatoon Breach has been destroyed by unknown means, the flank is secure, San Francisco Breach is vulnerable, sweep down the coast.)
No. of votes: 82
How will you approach this
[X] Since there are two aces in the flight now, would you like Shuri and I to hold back further? Or should we stop for the next exercise and decide after that?
No. of votes: 80
{
[]Evening: Continue down the list.
No. of votes: 30
-[] ... but not before dropping by the Crafting Club and thanking them for the silverware gift. Send your regards to the Baking Club too for the thought.
13+9+3=25(Pass)
Roll: 36
}
XxXxXxXxXx
"None of the difficult ones," Shuri responds immediately to Sandra's question.
"Yes, that would be a bad idea," agrees Yukari.
Koujirou and Setsuna frown in synch and look towards Sandra.
If they were hoping for an objection from the blonde, Sandra did not provide one, simply nodding her head graciously in acquiescence to the two veterans.
When Sandra does not oblige, Setsuna settles back, but Koujirou looks to you.
You can only give an awkward shrug in response.
Having participated in only a single sim scenario previously, you don't really know enough about the levels of difficulty to contribute to this.
From the abilities that Koujirou, Setsuna and Sandra have displayed in previous sims though, you're not sure if they could have passed the Moderate Scenario you completed on your first day, at least not alone. They would likely be able to pass the tanks, but the powerful anti-air lines would delay them long enough for the deploying fighters from the redoubt to join the dogfight, complicating the scenario immensely. They also would certainly have been unable to deal with the Type Five if it had deployed along with the fighters. Even if they overcame all previous challenges, none of them have the power to intercept the Type Five before it would reach the human transports.
With you and Shuri here... the two of you could certainly trivialise a moderate scenario, but… hmm.
When you say nothing, Sandra continues, "Very well then. I will defer to your experience. Then of the moderate historical scenarios or future simulations, does any one of those appeal?"
Setsuna, Koujirou and Yukari lean in to discuss the scenarios. You give another glance over the brief list, but otherwise, you simply listen, feeling ambivalent. You don't really have strong feelings for this in any case.
Thinking about it, how does Yukari fit into the Flight? Higher years in the Academy didn't have official authority over lower years, but lower years appeared to mostly defer to the experience of the upper years. In this case then, who would command the Flight? Right now, Yukari seemed to be listening to Sandra, either content to listen or having been overridden by the younger girl's powerful personality.
"Then how about Single Sweep?" asks Sandra, tapping on the scenario to bring up a more detailed description of the scenario, "We'll be playing the part of the second line, following the spearhead units down the North American West Coast and clearing away the secondary defensive units that surface."
You notice Yukari sit back slightly and her pupils contracting. She doesn't seem to like the idea of this scenario.
Sandra notices too. She seamlessly switches to another scenario, "Or rather, it may be more suitable for us to try-"
"No. Let's try Single Sweep." Yukari interjects, frowning down at the datapad.
Sandra flickers her eyes briefly over to Shuri, who looks on with hooded eyes but makes no motion to object.
"That's the last part of the Alaskan Offensive and the Great Battle right? It's something I really want to see in the simulators-"
Sandra throws an uncharacteristically cold look at Koujirou.
He blinks and cuts himself off as he notices the glare from Sandra and looks around the table.
Yukari is still looking intently at Sandra's datapad, seemingly lost in her own world. Setsuna looks just as uncertain as Koujirou, glancing between Yukari and Sandra. Shuri's pose remains relaxed, her body thrown back to recline in her chair and her face inscrutable. Sandra sat as straight and prim as ever, though her expression is clouded up from it's usual relaxed cheer.
"… Let's do Single Sweep," Yukari repeats quietly, almost to herself.
…
Well uh…
Um, a distraction!
"Sandra, as there are two Aces in the flight now, should we hold back further, or should we use everything, then see after this scenario?" you ask.
"For tonight, if would be better if you were to restrain yourself where possible," Sandra replies, turning to you with a slight smile, "I believe that if Shuri and you were both to put forth serious effort, the rest of us may well settle for watching a holo."
You tilt your head in acceptance of the expected response. Yukari finally looks up at that and sits back, her face flushing slightly in… embarrassment, maybe?
There's another moment of awkward silence that hangs over the table like a thick cloud before someone else speaks up.
"So…" Setsuna starts speculatively, then takes a deep breath and grabs the bull by the horns, "Which scenario then?"
Sandra looks briefly at Yukari, who nods resolutely, then addresses the table as a whole.
"If there are no objections, we shall fly the Single Sweep Scenario."
A pause, and then a chorus of affirmatives sounds out as the Flight stands as one.
XxXxXxXxXx
The Flight proceeds toward the simulators in a double file with Sandra in the lead. Rather than turn into one of the small scale rooms though, Sandra heads for the large scale simulator rooms.
"Wait did you- how did you manage to nab a large scale simulator room for just us? That's nuts, these are for whole squadrons or large elective classes!" splutters Setsuna as the Flight steps onto the escalator down to the large scale simulators.
"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little larger, Setsuna," Sandra replies demurely, hiding her mouth behind her hand, "As for how… well, a lady must keep some secrets."
Setsuna gapes like a fish for a moment, then reddens, "Y-y-you, you aristocrat! Size and height aren't everything you know! Shape is also important!"
Sandra raises a slender eyebrow calmly, then crosses her arms and bows her head in thought, "Have we changed the topic to our Valkyrie Frames? I suppose Albion's exclusively torso and arm mounted weaponry does create a top heavy frame, but it greatly simplifies impact dampening."
Koujirou, whose shoulders had been faintly trembling the whole time, lets out a strangled chuckle at Sandra's response.
Setsuna looks ready to pop again, and pins him with a glare. You look on with concern, ready to intercept any attacks that Setsuna may launch.
"Koji, you better not be thinking perverted thoughts."
Koujirou manages to rein in his giggling long enough to waggle his eyebrows at Setsuna and riposte, "Whatever could you mean Setsu? You know, it really takes one to know one."
Before Setsuna can reply, Yukari reaches over with her Impeller Field and gently bops them both on the head.
"Gah."
"Ow."
"No fighting during Flight practice, remember?"
"Sorry onee-sama," the two chorus.
To the side, Shuri and Sandra trade amused smiles at the interplay.
As your Flight nears the lobby of the Large Scale Simulator Room, you see groups of cadets sitting around within the room. Most are chatting, some hold onto buckets of food and the atmosphere is rather festive.
Sandra checks on her datapad and frowns faintly. She flicks across the screen several times before putting the datapad away. As soon as she does so, Shuri also frowns, probably having received a message from Sandra.
As your Flight walks in, an expectant hush washes over the crowd.
Sandra claps her hands twice to call attention to herself, "My apologies everyone, but as before, spectating will be disabled."
A chorus of complaints rises, but Sandra takes them in stride and leads your Flight through the room without a pause, passing out reassurances that the Flight will only reveal their strengths when ready. This seems to be a common enough occurrence, as most of the Valkyrie Cadets present appear to expect it, shrugging and filing out of the lobby.
Thus, your Flight enters the Simulator room without further problems.
XxXxXxXxXx
>New Scenario Startup
>>Historical: Moderate
>>Great Battle, Alaskan Offensive, Single Sweep
>North Pacific Ocean 50°0'0"N 130°0'0"W<
>06:54.21 7th November 2069 (GMT)<
>23:54.21 6th November 2069 (LOCAL)<
…[15-34 TFS dustoff TAB15] [m&DtChk`4sM@ugtBmaz-kkk2bf*&6T7CTFDUzF3hZ$2@h9HxvM@Kva&'sPWpxU~#] [AG BB 7-1 entering envelope, fire.] [No eyes on Saskatoon, anomalous readings continue.] [SRGMs on targets in KZ115] [Confirm final smoothing of the Breach tunnel. The Hive superstructure is exposed. No Higgs reactions detected. Fairbanks Hive is gone for good.] [New contacts, solid, 1-8-0 klicks.] [1-26-5-11 ARBAT, range good, firing at targets] [Seismic activity, centered on sector C13] [I want high eyes for Sekhmet, where is that fucker?] [Higgs Burst detected, matches no known release patterns, stand by.] [Good kill! Good kill! More bandits, dead ahead!] [PmpfrVMm\\qUEXVucx\\4L6Mpcyf\\aaVLtn3A\\aT4X8gik\\5oacbaoq] [Severe spatial shear detected, all units watch for exotic principle weaponry!] [First time in six years, what a turnaround.] [Missiles clear, good signal!] [1-26 WIG entering box C5-22. Going active!]
Noise.
It's everywhere.
High-level communications. Low-level data validation.
Strategic and tactical chatter. There is so much of it racing through the air.
[Calling UNNECOM Priority One! Saskatoon Breach is down! It's down, it's down! Repeat, Saskatoon Breach has been destroyed!] [Say again?] [Armstrong Base confirms, gravetic surges match initial Breach collapse patterns. Other Major Arcologies still processing.] [We don't need confirmation, we can see the exposed Hive!] [Traces of Breach still present, but no Higgs Reaction, the Hive is down!] [High Recon can confirm, Breach tunnel has dissipated!] [Armstrong to Third Fleet, priority one. Fire mission immediate. Saskatoon Hive is exposed.]
Strange, these messages felt… You take a moment to push the parts of your mind listening in to the comm chatter into the background, focusing on passively sweeping your surroundings.
Your Flight hovers a kilometer over the dark expanse of the Pacific ocean, the waves below driven by the howling winds to form steep, frothing canyons. Dark clouds roiled overhead, underlit by a steady red glow that emanated from over the horizon. Rain drove against the Flight, washing over Impeller Fields until it ran over the barriers in solid curtains of water. You swat the rain away several times with your Impeller before giving up. At least you could track the vectors of the rain droplets from long distances.
Sandra's frame tilts in the wind before she adjusts her thrusters and pulls herself to a stop. Similarly, Yukari and Shuri have no problems adjusting to the wind, but Setsuna and Koujirou collide and have to lean on each other for a moment to catch their balance. Setsuna quickly shoves herself away and gains some altitude, probably to survey the surroundings. Koujirou chooses to maintain his position as he also looks around.
You continue passively scanning around you. There doesn't appear to any active combat in the surrounding one hundred and twelve kilometers. Several human stealth drones hovered through the air at various distances, but the thick rain mutes their traces, and there were likely more in the rain that you didn't see. Human naval ships rode the waves at various distances but were similarly silent.
A sullen flare of white lit up the horizon for a single moment, then is swallowed up by the dark night, before another dozen flashes of light appear, flickering like chain lightning. Any doubt to the nature of the flashes is dismissed when a wave of neutrinos impacts your Impeller in the same moment. You allow the subsequent waves of miniscule particles through, where they bounce off your armour along with the constant stream of neutrinos from the… hmm… there were no neutrinos from the sun. Simulations, eh. That aside, those lights were probably the detonations of High Yield Weaponry, though you couldn't tell which side they were launched from.
A message pings across the flight. Recognising the encryption format of the message, you decrypt it.
-UNNECOM to all: Saskatoon Breach has been destroyed. AG forces pulling back from all northern sectors and shifting south. All reserves prepare for immediate advance on Portland Breach.-
It was a STRATNET broadcast to all UN units participating in the Alaskan Offensive, urgent priority.
>>UNNECOM to all: Saskatoon Breach has been destroyed. Antagonist forces pulling back from all northern sectors and shifting south. All reserves prepare for immediate advance on Portland Breach.
The message felt… familiar.
Navigation markers appear for the flight towards the southeast, and a flight path guide also appears, suggesting a flight ceiling before the display flickers as STRATNET shifts the command of the Flight down to the local TACNET. TACNET takes a moment to assess the Flight, then assigns the Flight along with several other Valkyrie Squadrons into a temporary Wing, the 3rd Wing of the newly formed Pacific Shore Assault Second Air Group.
More messages brush against your sensors, maddeningly familiar, and talking of something, something that you-
Then, one not familiar. Incongruous.
"Valkyrie Squadrons in sector B1, this is Wing Commander Laurent. I know this is abrupt, but y'all being shifted under my command. We're going to advance down the coast under rolling cover. If you can't sweep the floor clean, don't worry, just mark 'em. Pinnacle and Deus Ex Squadrons will be going ahead. Follow our wake and don't loiter. If you were chafing at being on reserve, today is your lucky day. Laurent out."
More nav markers appear, this time with time stamps on them, countdowns.
All to the south east.
"Anna, you're on the wrong heading."
"Wrong heading?" you wonder out loud as you pull yourself to a stop.
A glance back shows the rest of the flight slowly starting to burn south east.
Strange. Why to the southeast?
… Wasn't there- Isn't there-? It should be northeast from here, right?
What?
It?
You- …When had you started to pull away? Why had you been flying northeast?
Why-
Your own thrusters flare and Durga's components list off in your head. You were still damaged, but only lightly. You could make full speed, this time you could-
This time?
More messages, still familiar.
[Holy shit, we found Type Zero Sekhmet!]
"Anna-"
"Sandra wait. Stay away from her."
-No one was saved, and to their graves, perished and dead. All on my head.-
"Anna c'mon, we gotta hurry to make the nav marker times."
Hurry?
You were late.
-You're late-
Ah.
…
-Don't look back honey. I love you-
"Anna…-"
"In position. Proceed."
You pull in with the rest of the flight, mute your comm channels, and you scream and scream and scream and scream and scream and scream and scream.
XxXxXxXxXx
Aleksandra Marianne Cambridge took Forwards Sweeper position as the Flight formed up and began their race towards the shore. Shuri surged ahead to take Vanguard, the boy, Koujirou, followed close behind as to take Second Guard position. To her left and slightly behind, Koujirou's older sister Yukari kept pace in Edge Sweeper position. Mirroring Yukari on Sandra's opposite side, the excitable Setsuna flew. Behind and above, Anna silently held in keeper position. The flight as a whole had formed a weighted arrow formation.
"Choosing this scenario was a mistake."
Shuri did not mince words when she opened a private channel to Sandra.
"It was," Sandra responded regretfully.
Anna usually veered between two extremes, either displaying her emotions very openly with the occasional comical exaggeration, or a blank intensity that was nearly inhuman. Sandra wasn't sure how to read the other girl, but Anna had seemed completely unruffled at scenarios listed through the simulator. Sandra had already been wary of entering the scenario based on Yukari's reaction, but the older girl had seemed to relax once they entered the scenario, seeming more comfortable in the drilled routine of flight.
That was in complete contrast to Anna.
Anna's eyes, just visible through the small eyeholes of her polarised visor, appeared impassive, but her frame writhed. Its malleable surface almost seemed to vibrate and shudder, and her weapons, all of them expressed to their full autonomous states, shifted forms and bearing erratically.
Pointing northeast, then back forwards, then northeast again.
"Shuri, maybe we should-"
"No, Sandra. What would that do except throw her loss back into her face when she needs to leave the sim?"
Sandra pursed her lips. Shuri could be… indelicate when conversing with others, but in this case, Sandra agreed with her after a moment of thought. She didn't know exactly what tragedy had befallen Anna in the cold, Canadian north, but from her reaction just then, Sandra thought that she now had a fairly good idea.
This simulation was probably the worst possible choice, especially in contrast with her speech earlier in the evening- …no.
The situation was still salvageable.
"Shuri, Ride of the Valkyries."
Shuri sighed softly, her exasperation clear, "You want to inspire her by showing off? Sandra, I doubt-"
"No Shuri, we demonstrate to Anna how much of a difference we can make, that she can make, with this scenario."
"You think she can ignore what happened and see what is happening here and now instead?"
"I believe so. This was what we planned anyway, so we just need to, um, need to… pound it in?"
Shuri flipped midair and stared at Sandra frankly for a moment through the narrow slash of her visor, then nodded faintly.
"Right."
XxXxXxXxXx
Setsuna sighed slightly as land came into sight after about two minutes of flight. The rain was finally abating, the Valkyries having outrun the stormfront.
It was exhausting flying through a rainstorm, the water was heavy. It was an actual strain on her Field, even at lower mach speeds, Setsuna remembered that it had something to do with the compression properties of water. Whatever the reason, adding rain to the already significant air resistance at high speeds made flying nearly unbearable.
Well, for herself anyway.
Up ahead, the Golden Ace weathered the forces without the slightest hint of trouble, shunting aside most of the water and smashing apart a path through which the rest of the Flight followed. Shuri's Impeller was spread out deliberately wide, pushing ahead of it a plasma bow that probably would have broken Setsuna's own frame and field both in half if she tried to do the same. All this force didn't even strain Shuri in the slightest, and from the documentaries that Setsuna had watched before joining the Valkyries, Shuri could cruise way faster than this, even when acting as the icebreaker for an entire squadron.
Speaking of strong and steady… behind the main group, Anna was… being Anna. She flew above Shuri's wake, somehow keeping up with the speed of the flight despite hardly leaving a visible trail. Anna also seemed completely oblivious to the unnecessary strain she was placing on her Impeller Field that she could have avoided by dipping a hundred or so meters lower.
Setsuna felt a slight sense of longing mixed with jealousy as she looked on at the two Aces. The sheer power that they displayed by so casually cutting through the wind and water. Different from the chaotic display of aerial prowess shown by Anna yesterday night, where chance and luck could be blamed for at least some of what happened; this was a silent affirmation of skill and strength by both Aces.
Unshakable.
Setsuna was broken out of her thoughts as Kousenjoubi shuddered in the air. Ahead, Shuri had corrected her course minutely, causing Setsuna to run into turbulence. She pulled back into formation, feeling the additional strain added onto her Impeller. Still, running into accidental backwash from Shuri was better than the alternative, if it wasn't for Shuri carving a path, Setsuna would have had to slow down to keep her Field from collapsing.
Koujirou flew just under Shuri, completely within the envelope formed by her Impeller, so he looked fine. Sandra cruised behind and slightly above Shuri, pretty much at the center of Shuri's wake, so she was peachy. Yukari flew steadily on the edges, like Setsuna, but had probably done something with her Impeller to lessen the strain on it. Setsuna herself was honestly struggling somewhat to keep up.
Setsuna didn't really think she'd get along with Sandra at all if the foppish flight leader kept the cushy positions for herself. Really, what was Koji thinking just merging the Flights like that?
It was the boobs wasn't it? Boobs and hair probably. Overdeveloped girls, the true enemy of all other girls.
Glaring darkly sideways at the unsuspecting Sandra, Setsuna looked Albion over. Top heavy? Top heavy? Dammit, Setsuna swore that sometimes Sandra was pressing her buttons on purpose.
As if sensing the look, Sandra glanced over and politely smiled, probably waiting for a question.
She might have sensed the look, actually. Setsuna still didn't know what Anna had been talking about when they were deciding positions, but if Sandra shared Anna's strange sensory ability… well, it was probably from equipment. Probably something experimental that Sandra requisitioned through her connections or something or other.
Before the silent stare-off could get awkward, Sandra frowned and turned her head back forward as her Impeller flickered slightly and her flight path shook. Ahead, Shuri's thrusters glowed even brighter as she led the Flight into an accelerating descent, keeping with the suggested flight ceiling.
… Actually, thinking about that, if Shuri was pushing that much air, wouldn't Sandra be flying inside Shuri's thruster wash? Setsuna takes a brief look with her IR scopes. Shuri's exhaust cone was huge and Sandra flew pretty much at the center of it. In fact, despite condensing her Impeller to reduce cross-sectional area, Sandra was collecting a plasma sheath of her own from following behind Shuri.
…So Sandra actually had the hardest position in the formation.
…
Setsuna growled to herself and concentrated on her own Impeller and felt the strain of flight lessen minutely.
No one has ever improved through whinging at others.
XxXxXxXxXx
Yukari looked solemnly over the landscape.
Black oceans. Burning clouds. The red glow of the false dawn on the horizon.
Exactly as she remembered.
All but real.
"Everyone, I'm finally here…"
XxXxXxXxXx
Koujirou gulped as the flight cleared the stormfront. The clouds hadn't been just been lit up by lights from over the horizon.
Parts of the sky were glowing a dull red. He strained with his sensors and fuzzy returns lit up his scopes. Combat was happening at very long ranges away from him. The UN was duking it out with AG forces in low orbit, but only with lighter craft. Waaaaay too close to the Breaches to have space force capital ships in orbit.
Even as he watched, another white flash of light flared up, then quickly dulled to orange and then red. Faint rainbows of ghostly light were almost washed out by the red glow, but were still just barely visible. Faint crackles of electricity popped off against his Impeller, caused by radiation hitting the atmosphere or something. Below the Flight, a naval carrier group cut through the water, their decks a riot of activity as they fired aircraft off towards the shore.
"Everyone, the UN missile waves are falling now. Advanced Valkyrie forces have already made shore. We're scheduled to make landfall with the third wave of missiles," Sandra calmly informed the Flight.
It was only after hearing Sandra's voice that Koujirou realised how hard he was breathing. Blood thundered through his ears and his head felt light.
Swallowing, he found his mouth dry.
This sim was different.
This actually happened.
This could happen again.
Ahead, Shuri slowed slightly as the timestamps on the nav points adjusted.
Streaks of light appeared from the sky overhead, falling from orbit, tracing hundreds, and then thousands of lines. More pinpoints of lights appeared from over the horizon, racing along the curvature of the Earth.
[Incoming Missiles. ~10,000 active engines. ~40,000+ warheads total.]
Bars of incandescent white light and dim blue flares raced up from the dark smudge of land in the distance to answer them. Antagonist laser and particle anti-air.
Flashes of lights appeared all over as missiles and missile defences struggled against each other.
One cluster of lights broke off from the main wave falling from orbit, accelerating ahead. A strange translucent ripple in the air appeared, visible even from hundreds of kilometers distant, as something happened and the anti-air fire abruptly slackened.
Just as quickly, the double A picked up again, this time much more intensely, directed at the Valkyries, because that's what they had to be, who wove through the air like quicksilver.
[ID Confirm: Emergency Fast Response Squadron: Deus Ex]
They quickly raced over the horizon, disappearing from sight, though their battle's effects on the atmosphere could still be seen.
Koujirou tore his eyes away from the display and turned his head to follow the incoming missiles, if one was struck off course by intercepting fire and fell towards the Flight-
Koujirou glanced at the shore, if there were Antagonist units, maybe even Types, waiting for them- Koujirou turned to the ocean underneath, if there were submerged Antagonists-
Koujirou's breathing sped up further, coming up short. His eyes flickered from point to point. His hands and feet felt cold but his cheeks were burning up. There was too much; too much to keep an eye on, he couldn't-
"Eyes front, Valkyrie. You're Vanguard."
Yukari.
Koujirou blinked and gasped, sucking in a huge breath as he shook his head. The familiar scolding tone of Yukari's voice had snapped him out of his confusion.
"R-right. Sorry Yuka-nee."
Koujirou controlled his breathing, repetitively taking in deep breaths, holding it for a moment and then exhaling slowly. He felt his heartbeat take on a more regular rhythm as he concentrated on his own cone of responsibility.
Continuing the rhythmic breathing, Koujirou sweeps the front of the Flight. To the south of their Flight, one hundred and fifty or so kilometers distant, another cluster of white lights pull ahead of the surface-hugging cruise missiles and raced forwards to slam into the Antagonists on the shore.
[ID Confirm: Emergency Fast Response Squadron: Pinnacle]
Koujirou sighed as he watched them pull ahead of his Flight rapidly. He had just been told to watch right ahead, but... this was another one of the top squadrons from the Three Hundred that he got to watch.
There were only eighteen Valkyries in Pinnacle, not really enough to be called a squadron, but then again, they were part of the Three Hundred. Rules didn't really apply the same way for them.
[Higgs Particle Reaction detected!]
Type Twos. Dozens of them lifted off from the shore and converged.
Koujirou's breath hitched. This was what he had feared, that there would be Types hiding along the shore. Pinnacle was nearly one hundred and fifty kilometers distant, flying high with no regard to the anti-air fire, and he had nothing that could reach nearly that far.
The two forces smashed into each other-
-and Pinnacle ripped apart two dozen Type Twos in a tenth as many seconds and continued on without a pause.
…
…Weren't Type Twos supposed to be even matches for individual Elite Valks?
They just got shitstomped.
Koujirou shook his head in slight disbelief at the what he saw. The sheer… incredulity he felt at the display finally shook off the remnants of his anxiety, at least for the moment.
"Second wave of missiles incoming. Link data feeds," Sandra ordered, sounding as unruffled as ever, almost as if she didn't just see a force, one that probably would have taken apart the Flight if they reached the shore before Pinnacle, appear abruptly and disappear even faster.
Koujirou accepted the datalink request absently at first, then stared in shock at the sudden deluge of information before TACNET filtered most of it for him. One thing he just couldn't ignore though, was the updated context map for the flight.
A riot of colours from symbols permeated low orbit; more missiles.
[Incoming Missiles. Two waves. 35,236 active engines. 99,141 warheads total.]
[Additional Incoming Missiles. Ten waves. 390,601 active engines. ~1,019,500 warheads total.]
…Bloody hell that's a lot of missiles. It wouldn't even be all of them, as the other cruise missiles would be flying out of sight over the horizon to the Flight. Then again, the UN was pretty much shelling the entire western half of North America.
The first wave of missiles began to make landfall. Well, making landfall was a bit of a tall tale. Of the tens of thousands of warheads from the first wave, only a few dozen made it through the waves of intercepting fire.
The active anti-air had been hammered by Valkyries forces in turn, both from the Three Hundred and the Elite forward squadrons, but as the swarms of the second and third missile waves appeared, more anti-air positions lit up.
The Instructors had played a tactical sim before class that had this kind of scenario hadn't they? Where the AGs would hide the true extent of the forces until really needed right?
The Flight was nearly at the shore now, where the water frothed and boiled as the sturdy hulls of human tanks rolled ashore from their underwater carriers. The carrier themselves also beached and opened fire on opposing Antagonist forces, spitting shells and flares.
Koujirou winced as a pearlescent purple beam that seemed to bend the air struck one of the submarine carriers, stripped away heavily armoured hull plating and smashed apart turrets. Overpenetrating, the beam raced through the carrier out to sea, terminating in an enormous plume of water some kilometers back.
The carrier belched smoke and fire, shaking as secondary detonations thundered out, yet tanks continued to roll out of the stricken vessel. The all-drone first waves were just as fearless as the Antagonists in following their programmed purpose, and smashed into the alien machines, both sides without reason, without pity, without remorse and without fear. Neither side would stop, ever, until the other was destroyed.
Koujirou felt a faint shiver crawl down his spine at the sight of the emotionless warfare beneath him. Battle on such a huge scale, yet without any humans present. However, despite the steadily increasing human forces ashore, the tide was clearly in the defending side's favour. Strangely liquid blue bolts were falling, slamming down into the human armored push, vapourising armour and sand meters around the impact points and upending tanks dozens of meters away.
Kandakara flashed a proximity alert as cannon rounds shrieked over the flight. High angled shots flew over the tanks as human warships further out to sea began immediate counter battery fire against the AG artillery. Some of the plasma barrage was redirected out at the ships, allowing the landing forces to advance unmolested.
The duel was interrupted as another purple beam of light scythed out. The particle attack bent unnaturally, perfectly following the curvature of the Earth in defiance of conventional ballistics. Koujirou gave a quick glance back and watched a warship take a direct strike. The cruiser buckled in the water, running lights flickering off and superstructure aflame. Moments later, the stern of the ship bulged outwards and exploded, lighting up the night for kilometers around as its missile tubes cooked off, lifting the entire rear end of the ship out of the water. Tens of thousands of tons of steel seem to hang in the air for a moment before the ship plunges back down into the water and rolls over.
No lifeboats launched.
TACNET marked the origin point of the fire, at least another hundred klicks further inland.
Type Tens.
TACNET passes a clear image of both. Completely alien in appearance, partially translucent, and composed of geometric crystals intersecting with one another. The Tens were entrenched in the ground, one long and cylindrical, the other spiked like a sea urchin. A faint glow radiated from the cylindrical one as it charged another shot as the spiked one glimmered, and wire thin lines of fire reached out, intercepting missiles and cannon shells.
Around them, low-level, more conventionally mechanical Antagonist artillery units continued to fire.
"Type 10s with artillery. They are our first targets," Sandra ordered, voice cold and precise.
Koujirou griped Murakumo tighter, and the Flight finally raced over land.
XxXxXxXxXx
Sandra delicately adjusted the target allotment for the flight data streaming in over local TACNET.
Target information for Antagonist unit formations streamed in, markers for whom in the flight -or even nearby friendly forces- would be most appropriate and able to strike. Despite the thick dust, jamming, and radiation from the missiles and other previous passes of the forward Valkyrie Squadrons, there was still an overwhelming number of solid contacts on scope. Anna truly excelled in sensory capability.
TACNET rapidly passed a list of targeting priorities to Sandra for review. She looked it over for just a brief moment before dismissing it and formatting another target list on the fly. While it was somewhat tempting for her to simply allow TACNET to mark all of the Antagonists for Anna to eliminate, it would not be beneficial for the Flight as whole, or even Anna herself, to do so.
Anna would be well aware of how trivially she could destroy the nearby Antagonist forces defending the coast. The knowledge had never appeared to help her in the past.
Yukari would not benefit from such a course of action either. Sandra had only skimmed her file in the time that she had after dinner, but cutting Yukari out from participating significantly in this scenario would be detrimental to the extreme.
Sandra at least knew well of Shuri's story.
Sandra felt her mouth turn downwards slightly in distress at the state of her fellow cadets before stiffening her lips. Helping others was what she did. It was something that anyone who could, should.
Sandra quickly marked the Type Tens for Anna and the artillery batteries for Setsuna and Yukari, then fanned the Flight out in an extended wing formation. The Flight turned further to the south to begin a shallow sweep of the coast, free firing on all targets of opportunity on their way. The primary objective of the Valkyries on this offensive was spearheading, so some targets would just have to skipped over. For those, Sandra allowed TACNET to mark the ignored units as they were found by sensor sweeps.
The Valkyries of the Flight dropped even more altitude, merely five hundred meters off the ground when they began to pour weapon fire downwards. Anna combined her primary particle weapons and with two rapid, blindingly bright shots, both Type Tens and the Antagonists in their surrounding two hundred meters are silenced. There was nothing left but molten scrap and fountains of wild higgs particles from the former locations of the two Types.
The artillery batteries in range changed their modes to anti-air, flak rounds flying out towards the Valkyries, even as the mass production AG infantry units and tanks in range also switch targets. Setsuna and Yukari return fire on the artillery as they dodge incoming fire. A huge plume of missiles races from Setsuna's Kousenjoubi to chase after the laser and particle fire from Yukari's Nue.
Sandra fired missiles more conservatively at the ground targets, relying on her energy weapons instead. Switching her own plasma casters from bolt to stream mode, Sandra poured down a swathe of destruction on the low level Antagonist units alongside Shuri and Koujirou. With their stronger brethren already destroyed by other Valkyrie squadrons or missile strikes, most of the holdouts are flattened as the Valkyrie Flight passes overhead.
Those Antagonists that survived the pass of the Flight had to contend with the massing conventional human units. Any Antagonist easily outmatched the equivalent human units individually, but humans almost always held an overwhelming numbers advantage. It was no different here as human drone units swarmed the Antagonist defenders.
Even a few surviving high level Antagonists were being destroyed by the conventional assault. A Scorpion, one of the more powerful Antagonist armoured units, crashed to the ground when its legs gave out, shaking the earth and throwing up a huge plume of dust. With the Scorpion unable to dodge and many of its secondary weapons destroyed, human jets strafed it with missiles and bombs as the tanks swarmed, concentrating their firepower. The Scorpion goes down swinging, its heavy plasma cannons claiming another submarine carrier as it surfaced. The human ship was forced to discharge its payload of tanks a few hundred meters out at sea as its hull buckled and listed dangerously.
So numerous were the units and so intense was the battle that at the points of the fiercest conflict, the ground was illuminated by constant energy weapon fire, destroyed burning vehicles and searing explosions to be almost as bright as day.
Sandra watched in slight disbelief as even a Type fell victim to numbers. A distant Type sixteen, a jagged and stretched-out parody of a human in appearance, darted between destroyed vehicles in a field of wreckage formed from the remains of nearly three hundred main battle tanks and dozens of jets. The high level unit had accounted for the equivalent of three Pre-Impact armored regiments by itself. However, it had depleted its Higgs supply and Impeller field in doing so, and Antagonists Types couldn't regenerate Impeller as fast as a Valkyrie.
More and more shells and missiles raced in and the Type was forced from its cover within the carcasses of human vehicles. With a supersonic leap, propelled only by leg strength, the Type slammed itself into a tank hundreds of meters distant, nearly tearing it in two with its unpowered melee halberd.
The Type braced itself for another jump, but railgun rounds from heavy tanks struck it and bowled it over. Cracks spreading over its armour, the Type recovered from the attack and proceeds in a hellishly fast ground crawl before a precise bracket of bombs from a strafing fighter sent it flipping through the air. More cannon fire slammed into its armour as it flailed midair and the Type was finally thrown back into the ground to bounce over the dusty rocky landscape.
Seriously damaged but still staggering upright, the Type shakily caught a cannon round with a sliver of regenerated Impeller and sent it back at the tank that fired it. The shell returned with at least twice the original speed and the tank buckled back in the face of the attack, frontal armour caved in.
Another series of cannon shells smashed into the Type and it does not get up again. Human vehicles surround the site and rapidly bombard the site where the high-level Antagonist infantry unit fell, making sure that it would not have time to repair itself.
The end of the saga was not documented by Sandra as Anna suddenly began firing at the ground a few dozen kilometers forwards of the Flight. Particle beams cause the ground to shudder and then heave as subterranean explosions rip apart the land.
[Higgs Particle Reaction!]
Moments later, TACNET trilled an alarm as the data feed from Anna is processed. The ground rumbled in a far wider area than what Anna was targeting. Instants later, the crumbling rock erupted into a plume of Antagonist fighters as multiple air groups of buried Antagonists surge upwards from their underground tunnels.
The majority raced into a climb for the waves of incoming UN missiles, hundreds more leveled towards the landing forces and two Type Fives turn to face the Flight. They charged forwards, followed by a trio of Dragonflies, high level Antagonist air superiority fighters, closing the distance far faster than standard Antagonist aerial units.
[Flight Cambridge requesting immediate High Yield Weaponry support. Relevant data attached.]
[STRATNET Approves. ETA ~13sec]
Sandra barely sees the broken body of a Type Eighteen get impaled by one last attack from Anna before the Type Fives are on top of them.
XxXxXxXxXx
Setsuna tilted her frame backwards, retroburning with all her thrusters.
Kousenjoubi beeped insistently as the Dragonflies closed in. The Flight had been close to maximum cruise as the AGs had popped up and their relative speeds were simply too high. It would definitely be close range combat.
Her missile bays, still loaded with air to ground cluster munitions, would take too long to cycle in and arm Anti-air missiles. However, other weapon status indicators flashed green on Setsuna's HUD as both railguns clicked, HE proximity rounds chambered.
Setsuna immediately fired.
The slim alien high level air superiority fighter turned and tumbled in the air to dodge. The Dragonfly's control surfaces and thrusters both twisted in manners mechanically impossible for even the most advanced human aerospace fighter. Despite having only instants to react, the fighter jinked out of the effective detonation range of Setsuna's flak, and the shrapnel bounced off the armour of the alien fighter.
In return, a series of missiles blasted out of the fighter. Trailing blue white exhaust, the missiles close in, blooming outwards for a standard envelopment. Setsuna grits her teeth as her intercepting burst of railgun fire proves ineffective, shattering only four out of the dozen or so missiles.
Kousenjoubi rapidly advises on an evasive course, a timer counting down as the frame's targeting computers recalibrate. Missiles are ejected as makeshift flares and her cannons barked, destroying another two missiles. The rest were too close and-
A thin white string whips across the missiles while they are less than a hundred meters from Setsuna, and the missiles harmlessly detonated, her Impeller shrugging off the shockwave. Yukari discarded the damaged whipcord that she had thrown in the way of the missiles and reengaged her own Dragonfly, which was already smoking badly and limping, its ablative armour shredded.
An alert from TACNET pops up, setting up a cross fire zone to trap the Dragonfly. Setsuna is joined by Sandra as the Flight leader leads in with a spread of missiles, firing her own railguns immediately after. Like Setsuna, her energy weapons were still out of comission, reconfiguring to function against high speed and high impact opponents.
However, with two Valkyries now focusing on the one target, their energy weaponry wouldn't be needed. Sandra's missiles shrieked in with active homing and Setsuna fired another series of railgun bursts to cover the escape zones.
The Dragonfly spat out cannon rounds and ejected decoy flares, but the flares are ineffective in the face of active guidance. The cannon rounds slam into Setsuna's Impeller, shaking her aim severely. The Dragonfly used the brief window of time from the disruption to evade a missile, but is then struck by Sandra's railgun rounds. It tumbles through the air and breaks into pieces when Setsuna's vengeful burst of HE shells penetrates it, tearing it right in half with an internal detonation. Sandra's other missiles chase the pieces into the ground, completely obliterating the high level fighter.
Her target downed, Setsuna turned back to the rest of the Flight, just in time to hear TACNET chirp the all clear for their immediate surroundings.
Yukari flew next to Koujirou, the pair having eliminated the two other Dragonflies. Two halves of a Type Five fall away from Shuri, the Ace breaking apart her melee halberd back into its component parts. The other Type Five-
What the actual hell was Anna doing?
Anna's frame was faintly glowing, its underlayers distorted and warped, flowing out from under the black plates and enveloping the destroyed Type Five. The whole frame was pulsing, its surface rippling as if it was an... organ... Guts.
It was like… it was like Anna was trying to eat the Type Five.
Anna abruptly pauses, the dark blue underlayer of her frame dimming. Then, with a series of spasmodic twitches, Anna's frame literally vomited the Type Five out, large chunks of the Antagonist flying away from her frame as smaller pieces of it drip and drop away from the frame's surface. With a heaving shudder that seemed almost disgusted, Anna's frame reforms back into its normal shape.
Setsuna unconsciously swallowed at the sight.
What- what the hell was that!
That was a scene right out of a bad grey goo video game!
Before Setsuna or anyone else can comment, an insistent order from Sandra over TACNET has the Flight rapidly withdraw back out to sea.
Back at the swarms of Antagonist fighters, a series of rocket torpedoes blast out of the water, casings breaking apart to release missiles.
The High Yield Warheads light up and the world was white.
XxXxXxXxXx
[Sensors Overloaded. Radiation Warning. Acceleration Warning. Datalinks Offline. Flight Stabilisation Warning. Temperature Warning. Impeller Field Integrity Warning.]
Koujirou tumbled through the air, Kandakara whispering into his ears a multitude of warnings. His thrusters turned on and off, a rapid melody of low impulse pushes, trying to stabilise his flight. Koujirou would do it manually, but his visor was at maximum polarity and his sensor suite was rebooting, so he couldn't see shit.
… Koujirou thought that he seriously, seriously needed to improve the discernment ability of his own Impeller, because this 'blind to the world' shit was getting old real fast.
Something grabbed Koujirou's leg and he kicked wildly in panic- and received an irritated cuff over the head in return.
The gesture was so familiar that Koujirou immediately calmed down and let Yukari pull him to a stop to set him upright.
As his visor finally depolarised, Koujirou glanced around to take stock of the situation. Yukari and Setsuna flew next to him, Yukari with one hand on his shoulder and holding Setsuna's hand with her other. A few dozen or so meters away, Shuri hovered next to Sandra.
Koujirou feels his weakened Impeller start to regenerate and push at Yukari's hand, but he restrains it, keeping it dense.
All around the Flight, a strange, black field swirled, encasing the Valkyries. Was this some more Antagonist space magic-?
As if Koujirou's recovery was a signal, the field twisted, then withdrew into one point and revealed Anna, her frame absorbing the strange black mist. With the shielding system- or whatever it was- retracted, their surroundings came into view.
The battlefield was devastated. Flaming dust rose into the sky in the familiar shapes of several mushroom clouds, illuminating the surroundings with hellish red light. Dead Antagonists were everywhere, some still falling from the sky, smoking and burning, and a huge depression where the AG tunnel exit had been was barely visible. The nearby human landing forces were in pretty bad shape too, ships and tanks flipped and the forces closer to the blasts simply crushed into scrap.
The human landing forces weren't even flinching at the friendly fire. Even more amphibious landing forces surfaced, and the first of the air carriers were peeking over the horizon, arriving along with the next wave of general missiles, aimed further inland.
"Area cleared. Re-establish datalinks. Everyone, drop altitude until your Impeller Fields recover," orders Sandra as she quickly recovers from the shock of the close explosions, "Anna, good job finding those hidden forces. If they were to go active as the bulk of the landing forces approached, casualties would have been enormous."
Anna doesn't respond as far as Koujirou can tell and after a moment, the Flight reforms and descends. Koujirou shakes his head slightly, feeling the first signs of the overuse migraine flicker at the edge of his temples. A bit of a break or even a bit of cruising as suggested by Sandra would be really nice right now.
The Flight takes back out to sea, rather leisurely flying down the coast at thankfully low speeds.
XxXxXxXxXx
Sandra consulted the mission timer.
The Flight would no longer make the mission timers to reach the outer defences of Portland Breach with the third waves of reinforcements, not unless everyone pushed to maximum speed.
It didn't truly matter though for this scenario, as whilst a standard objective scenario would mark the Flight down severely, historical scenarios were not so rigid.
Anna's early discovery of the Antagonist Tunnel system known as "Interstate Five" would have had huge repercussions on the actual attack on the Portland Breach. Historically, the Antagonist Forces hidden within the tunnel system had revealed themselves in full as a reinforcement wave of heavy units from Denver Major Breach arrived, crushing the UN forces at Salt Lake City Breach and almost stopping the ongoing attack on Portland also.
With the revelation of Interstate Five, the scenario had updated in accordance, pushing the start of the decisive UN attack on Portland behind of historical schedule by almost an hour while the UN forward forces scoured the Antagonist Tunnels, calling in precise strikes on junctions. With the locations of one the primary reserves of the Antagonists now known in addition to the abrupt silence of the Saskatoon minor Breach, the UN was finally fully committing to the battle.
Initially, the primary barrier in this scenario was endurance. The flight beginning inside a rainstorm, the constant low-level Antagonist attacks from below, the nearly two thousand kilometers of distance from off the shore of Vancouver Island to Portland... The distance itself made it implausible for a Flight with… inexperienced Valkyries, such as herself, to succeed in the twenty minutes suggested, even with Shuri leading.
Anna detecting Interstate Five was an enormous strategic bonus. Anna then attacking Interstate Five after finding it was a serious tactical complication for the Flight; the Antagonist forces inside, knowing they were sprung, emerged en mass. The duo of Type Fives would have certainly destroyed a standard first year flight, or damaged a first year squadron to the point where they would be unable to continue combat. Though the pair of Types were immediately neutralised by the Aces, the weakest elements of the Flight were exhausted from the long distance flight, close combat with High Level Antagonists, and finally, the detonation of the High Yield Weaponry. This necessitated significant recovery time.
Sandra updated STRATNET on the status of their Flight, and it updated their mission objectives in turn, as it would on the battlefield. Now the Flight was to provide overwatch for the incoming air transports further out to sea until they arrived on land. Sandra gave the instructions, and the Flight slowly peeled away from shore. She rather doubted the flight would have more to do from here on; even if the simulated STRANET did not wait for them to recover, further unknown unknowns were unlikely to appear for the simulator to keep the simulation within the bounds of moderate difficulty.
More UN forces converged from every angle on her strategic context map. The forces of Northeast Area A pushed east and south from Alaska. Northeast Area B, their area, now massing forces for concentrated pushes inland as the southern-most elements of the Area A forces merge in with the Area B forces. To the south, Far East Area A forces start advancing, finally leaving their entrenched positions for the first time in years.
Despite the co-ordination between the forces, the advance is helter skelter. Gaps are opened in UN lines as Northeast B, the force primarily designed to standoff and contest air superiority was rather suddenly drafted for covering the mass land invasion. The Army forces of Northeast A, sufficient in numbers to hold the Northern reaches, are directed to attack a front three times larger than expected. East A was short on mobile assets, most held behind the defensive lines for the counter attack to the meet an Antagonist assault. The ballistic missile barrage was targeted through estimations that were all but guesswork and prayers, resulting in poor hit percentages.
Despite all that, the lighting war rushdown was working. The UN forces of Northeast A and B rampaged down the West Coast of North America to approach the Portland Breach, making more progress in hours than in the entire last two weeks of rather tentative back and forth skirmishes.
Then, casualty markers. Hundreds, then thousands of units amongst the spearhead UN forces eliminated in seconds.
[Higgs Particle Reaction!]
Sandra cranes her head, looking to the south. Faint but steady blue luminescence radiates high into the atmosphere, the signature of an enormous Higgs emission. Even a thousand kilometers distant, her Impeller ripples as wild Higgs particles brush against it.
Raksha.
Herakles.
A pair of Type Zeros, Class B and Class C, facing Pinnacle Squadron head on. Moments later, the marker of the Three Hundred Squadron disappears.
Another replaces it.
[ID Confirm: Type Zero Subjugation Squadron: Last Word]
More of Three Hundred appear on the strategic map, converging.
From the south.
[ID Confirm: Type Zero Subjugation Squadron: Ragnarok]
From the north.
[ID Confirm: Type Zero Subjugation Squadron: Deicide]
The last Type Zero Subjugation Squadron in the Northeast Theatre, Theophagy, were still battling Aeon out of Sandra's map range. Historically, here on the West Coast, neither side would take casualties. The Type Zeroes would battle against Last Word, then retreat as Deicide joined the battle, escaping before Ragnarok could cut them off.
It was likely that the simulation would end that battle the same way, but it was impossible to tell, Higgs distortions and the weapon systems of the Three Hundred Frames making it impossible to establish datalinks in the area.
By now, on the main front, the UN Space Forces start arriving to support the breakthrough pushes to the south, the heavy weaponry of the space battleships brought to bear on stubbornly intact Antagonist redoubts as their own barriers and armour shrugged off return fire. Conventional squadrons of enlisted Valkyries advanced ahead of them, watching for Types that may try to ambush the battleships.
Their Flight was not one of them, and Sandra felt a spike of impatience at being held at the rear lines, but she quickly reined it in. The overuse headache had mostly faded, but it still lingered at the edge of her awareness, and would not fully fade until Sandra desynchronised Albion. High intensity combat, on the other hand, would quickly drive the discomfort levels to debilitating. With a sideways glance, Sandra determined that the condition was also likely true for Koujirou and Setsuna, their status indicators gaining a yellow border as their Frames gave warning of their approaching limits. A backwards look at Anna showed her still silent, but no longer looking towards the North East, but rather to the South where Herakles and Raksha fought the Three Hundred.
And so, Sandra does not update the Flight Status on STRATNET, leaving the Flight marked as 'Impaired - Approaching Valkyrie Combat Time Limits'.
With that, the simulation draws down rather anti-climatically for the Flight, and it is another dozen minutes of mostly cruising for strategic positioning, the Flight occasionally resting on the air carriers they protect.
The simulation ends as the UN attack on the Portland Hive proper begins, the simulation space unravelling back into reality.
>Priority Objective Failed<
>Conditional Objective Successful<
>Scenario success<
>Casualties: 0<
>Grade: A+<
>>View statistics?
Sandra rapidly flicked through the detailed statistics, finding the simulated historical consequences, if any, of their Flight's actions.
And there were very many historical consequences.
"Good work everyone. Our actions shortened the length of the entire Alaskan Offensive by four hours. Because of our discovery of Interstate Five, the arrival of Denver's reinforcements would be mistimed and the UN forces successfully withdrew from the Salt Lake City Breach with greatly reduced casualties. In addition, the fast call for High Yield Weaponry that destroyed the Air Groups emerging from the tunnels prevented the Antagonists from gaining local air superiority over Corvallis, which meant that the UN advance down the coast was not cut in half, also reducing casualties greatly. If we replicate such manner feats on the real battlefield, humanity will greatly benefit."
It was rushed, but to the point.
By the door, Anna pauses for a moment, then leaves.
It was all Sandra could do for the moment.
XxXxXxXxXx
… Someone outside the simulation room tries to talk to you.
No important information received.
You ignore them.
You walk to your room.
You enter your room.
You sleep-
XxXxXxXxXx
-you wake up.
Moments later, the alarm starts beeping. You glance sideways, surprised at its relative location and turn it off. You had fallen asleep standing upright in the middle of your room.
Before you marshal your thoughts as to consider why you did not cocoon yourself in the soft comfort of your own bed last night, another one of the disembodied messages arrives. "Reminder to Anna Sanchez. Upon waking up, bathe and clean self. Eat breakfast. Do other normal things. End message."
Essentially the same message as before. You file it away and think about the coming day.
Today was… Friday. Somehow, the thought cheers you up mildly. Your first week was about to be over, and things were going fine.
… Things were going fine, right? Somehow you feel somewhat uneasy.
You try to pin down the source of the discomfort.
Ah. That's right.
Last night.
You had left without saying goodbye to anyone. It was the first time the entire Flight worked together, too. You also skipped out on visiting your elective classes.
You'll have to make up for it today.
XxXxXxXxXx
Koujirou is now Junior Valkyrie Third Grade
Yukari is now Elite Valkyrie
XxXxXxXxXx
Plans for today?
[]Breakfast: Bath and clean. Eat breakfast. Do other normal things. Apologise to your Flight for so rudely leaving last night.
[]Breakfast: Write in?
[]Morning: Continue as is. (Transcendent Offense)
[]Lunch: Write in.
Still to come;
Evening: (Will be subject to another vote following next update in event of a change of plans.)
[]Evening: Continue down the list.
-[] ... but not before dropping by the Crafting Club and thanking them for the silverware gift. Send your regards to the Baking Club too for the thought.
