Unfortunately, Hebert couldn't back it up. After the exotic nature of her Friends and the discovery of Anna, her mediocre capabilities were literally disappointing. Hebert didn't have the firepower, skill, or processing of a veteran Valkyrie. She had more weapons than many first-year cadets, certainly, but Valkyries interested in becoming battleships would soon push themselves in that direction and each individual weapon was rather weak.
I have to agree, this is slightly disappointing. Admittedly, QA's main ability isn't raw combat power, it's getting or making things that will have said power. I do hope that her personal weaponry gets up to standards (and we also know this was just a "how do I use..." baseline, not an actual attempt at fighting unless she went further while the viewpoint was away), but I bet by the time she brings a swarm of alicorns into there the instructors will be singing a different tune.
Then again, it's mentioned later that the UN would be "happy" if she had crazy-strong weaponry. She may not want that kind of attention from unknown and not necessarily allied sources...
Similarly, Shapira did not tell Hebert about how Symbie now looked like a Flying Spaghetti Monster made with spicy noodles.
Spffft!
So this is going to end up her new nickname, I just know it. It's... probably... better than bread-chan, though.
Human definitions of "high-yield" were no longer cute. What they lacked in quality they made up for with enough explosives to actually kill an undefended shard. Queen Administrator was not on that list — her siblings had attacked her too often for that — but there were still those who relied entirely on dimensional barriers.
Expected, but still alarming. These humans are truly enlightened in the path of Dakka.
She barely had enough time to extrude Symbie and set up basic message filters when the horizon lit with a faint blue luminescence. A wave of casualty notifications accompanied the sight, but QA didn't particularly care about those. Familiar high-velocity particles brushed against Symbie's suddenly-unstable Impeller and sent her heart into a stutter. Imitations they might be, but QA knew those properties.
[Higgs particle reaction!] echoed battlefield transmissions.
Access to those is never safe. QA didn't care what safeguards :MOTHER: had implemented; they clearly weren't intrusive enough to make 'Higgs' safe. Proper applications could tear paths between universes. Queen Administrator refrained from demanding information from any shard within range only because it was an attack used against human forces.
Oops. Well, it looks like it might be time to escalate and crack open a few more of those restricted archives...
The blue glow of high Higgs concentrations from Valkyries, members of a host species, soon killed QA's lingering vestiges of comfort. Effectively instantaneous teleportation, spatial manipulation, stronger attacks, emergency projectile deflection, and even engines; the Valkyries were using Higgs particles for all these applications and more.
I wonder what the shard equivalent of "bring my brown pants" is? Even knowing that Higgs generators can (apparently only
mostly) only be used in installations doesn't help if there are still Valkyries able to use it. Plus, as mentioned, these are Hosts with shard-tier restricted items.
And of course, if they're out of the bag already, surely it's not an issue if she plays with that tech too...
Unreliable archival access or not, Queen Administrator knew what she was looking at. Queen Objective had spend enough time bragging about such technologies for QA to recognize even the ones she did not personally utilize.
*snip*
Meep! Yeah, that's scary.
"Anyway, Antagonists don't hold back and neither do we. This isn't even the best of the best; it's classified to Hell and back, but a Valkyrie soloed a Class C Type Zero at one point. Don't tell your classmates; she's an anomaly."
Queen Administrator almost expressed exasperation only to realize that Symbie's Frame would block all signs of the emotion. She may need to consult available guides for displaying emotions from within multiple layers of armor. Still, the observed reaction time of Anna Sanchez was even faster than that of the Valkyries arrayed before QA. The likely culprit was obvious.
Well, she's right...
This is not going to help what everyone perceives as an infatuation. And at this point they may not be wrong...
Never mind optimized pathfinding, she's
going to want to know about how Anna did that.
"You aren't supposed to fight your therapist. They're here to help. Other people aren't even going to know what you discuss unless informing us would tangibly and significantly benefit you, or you pose an impending threat to others and/or yourself."
Queen Administrator used Symbie to look up the UN's definition of significant. If Shapira was using the scientific definition, then that left a great deal of leeway.
This is adorable, and even more so because it's true.
"Your claims reflect an improper use of resources. Assigning one skilled individual specifically to assist a less valuable asset is a net loss for your own goals, especially when that assistance may render them less effective as a result. The only reason to do so is as a temporary, information-gathering venture."
"...I'm afraid to ask at this point," Shapira lied; she didn't even sound the slightest bit fearful. "'Less valuable?'"
"It is important to have a variety of views for research and development. Altering my mindset so that I am closer to other humans will impede my ability to make unique discoveries."
Instructor Shapira paused for the better part of ten seconds.
"No."
"'No?'" Queen Administrator echoed.
"No," Shapira repeated, stressing the word. "It is not a mistake to make you happier. Besides, is there really a preexisting 'happy' copy of you? No? Then you'll still present a unique viewpoint and may even be more productive overall."
Queen Administrator tried, but could not find a legitimate objection to those points. It was true that, as a Monarch, she was far more capable and less indistinguishable than a number of her siblings. Host, too, was anomalous enough that QA had no excuse to avoid the blatant attempts to gather information.
"Understood. Objections withdrawn; I will attend."
Wait, what? She actually managed to convince QA to do something humanizing? While pointing out what she'll hopefully internalize is a way to get better [DATA]?
She silently ignored the suggestion. Mom-Taylor should know very well what was bothering the Symbiotic Support Frame. At this rate, Symbie might have to force Mom-Taylor out of the sim just so the former human could get treatment, too. Humans clearly did it often enough for the process to have an associated name: an intervention.
Snerk.
This is going to end in hilarity, I just know it. This is why it's always dangerous to make new life, it may try to help you, especially if you
do need it!
