Mari is deliberately fulfilling a traditional mecha protagonist archetype, with the main characters in the role that the antagonists usually occupy. Mari is the protagonist from a meta perspective. The Holy Empire is far from sympathetic, though, obviously.
Realistically though, Kana is the protagonist of this quest in the same way Amani was in the previous one. One of the first pilots to die in Titanium was the dude I'd thought about as "would be protagonist if this were a show." I was much less obvious about it there than I'm being with Mari, though.
Another AIJ Pennant in heavy-configuration, with minimal customisation: 14
An AIJ Pennant in standard-configuration, with minimal customisation: 5
SCREENING OFFICER: So, you're a mechanic.
RECRUIT: I can fix things. I'm good at it.
SCREENING OFFICER: But you're trying to sign on as a pilot.
RECRUIT: That's right. That's— I want combat.
SCREENING OFFICER: Why?
RECRUIT: I used to have a family. I don't anymore. Look, I can pilot too. Just let me fight, okay?
— Screening interview excerpt taken from secure AIJ database
Onboard the armed shuttle Bright Star
Dame Agnieszka Leszczyńska can't sleep for the life of her. She's been zipped into her zero-g sleeping bag for hours, staring at the walls of her darkened cabin. It's a square compartment, well-appointed for a spaceship. A large bed anchored to one wall, a wardrobe built into another. A magnetic tabletop and a workstation on a third. The workstation's darkened display blinks 04:00, Ganymede time.
She's not awake because she's uncomfortable in any physical sense. Arianne stirs in her sleep, arms tightening imperceptibly where they're flung around Agnieszka's neck, burrowing a little tighter against her. Ari's cabin is larger and nicer, but for unknowable Ari reasons, she almost always prefers to slip into Agnieszka's bed rather than the reverse. This night, it had ended up only being slipping into bed — she puts on a brave face, but Ari is nervous about this plan as well.
Being close to her like this is wonderful, in the security of this quiet, sealed compartment. It allows Agnieszka a peace she never otherwise feels. As long as Ari is safe and here in her arms, there's no one to hurt, nothing to fight. No anger to struggle against.
But tonight it is also intensely painful. The mere thought of losing Ari sends a jolt of blind, grasping panic through Agnieszka's whole body. A helplessness that takes her away from herself, away from the knight and the killer and back to that scared little girl clinging to Six and Three and Twenty-One. There is nothing and no one that Agnieszka won't kill to keep Ari safe, but that won't be enough where they're going, if this all goes wrong. Ari is putting herself directly into the power of some very dangerous people, and she's putting herself at even greater risk of discovery and execution by her own mother. The thought of it is enough to drive Agnieszka mad, when she focuses on it too much.
This is something that Ari needs to do, for some reason. Agnieszka doesn't pretend to understand high-minded ideals, or common morality. The cause in and of itself means nothing to her, but the thought of being left behind is the only thing even close to as bad as Ari dying. Agnieszka's siblings are scattered and unreachable. Her birth family is dead. What would she have left without Ari? The ringing silence of the cabin is the truest answer.
Don't think about that, though. Don't let the gnawing worry take hold. Just focus on the warm, soft solidity of the girl, the shallow rise and fall of her breathing, the steady, precious beating of her heart against Agnieszka's chest. Just focus on Ari, and everything is good. Agnieszka buries her face in her lover's hair, closes her eyes, and pretends she can get to sleep.
She isn't sure whether or not she actually falls asleep at any point. But when next she raises her eyes, two and a half hours have passed. Shortly thereafter, she feels Ari moving sleepily, murmuring something small and unintelligible against Agnieszka's shoulder. More movement, and she looks into blue eyes still blinking away sleep. Pouting lips turn up into a smile at the sight of Agnieszka's face. Just as quickly, this becomes a frown as she studies it. "Nieszka, did you sleep at all?"
Agnieszka shrugs within the confines of the sleeping bag and Ari's hold on her. "A little," she offers, resting her head against Ari's again.
Ari takes this in, going quiet for a moment. Then she says: "You know I'm worth more as a spy than as a hostage." As if this blunt calculus is something that should be reassuring.
Agnieszka doesn't even want to consider counterarguments to that, at this point. "Mm," she says, into Ari's hair.
"It's going to be alright," Ari whispers, voice gentle. "I'll have you to protect me, won't I?"
"I'll..." Agnieszka's voice catches in her throat. "I'll... I'll try."
There's silence again after that, neither of them knowing what to say, Agnieszka gently stroking Ari's shoulder with one hand. Eventually, she feels Ari take the hand in hers, and slowly guide it in a different direction. "Would you like to help wake me up properly?" Ari whispers, voice just a little bit wicked.
This is a distraction, a way to try and keep Agnieszka's mind off of other things. And honestly, she's grateful. "I... I can do that," Agnieszka says. Then she covers Ari's mouth with hers.
Worst come to worst, she can't really kill every Jovian rebel in the place... but she can always try her best.
/////PoCS\\\\\
Tanner Station spaceport
It's almost annoying how much of a relief it is to be in zero-gravity again. The pain in your leg lessens immediately as soon as you're floating, and it's much less of a handicap to navigate the spaceport than it has been to get around the hab ring.
You're back in uniform, one of many AIJ personnel headed for the big, ominous briefing that Nazaret had previously warned you about.
"That's the Garter Snake's crew," Jay says, noting a loose knot of people going through a hatch up ahead of you.
"Yeah, looks like they're calling in everyone who's on-station," you say. The two of you are drifting together through a side-passage, heading toward the same open hatch as everyone else.
"You're getting looks," Jay says.
"Yeah. Dunno if that's just the leg, or rumours about the two of us." you say. In particular, a tall, red-haired woman at the tail end of the Garter Snake group gives you an assessing look. You recognise her. Shae... something about money. Price, maybe.
"Do you really think hardened freedom fighters are that gossipy, as a group?" Jay asks.
You laugh as though he's just told a very funny joke, and then deliberately steady yourself on his shoulder instead of catching the next handhold. This combination causes people to take notice. Shae in particular is looking between you and Jay with a puzzled expression on her face before she vanishes inside.
"I'm beginning to think that you're only using me to mess with people," he informs you, flat tone carrying some dryness.
"Please, Tham," you say, "you knew what I was before you got into bed with me." That earns you his quiet little half-laugh, easily overlooked by people who don't know him well already. You can't suppress a smug sort of smile as you push through the hatch ahead of him.
It's quite a step up from the pilots' briefing room back on the Esther Strova, although it's similar in fundamental layout. Rows of workstations along three surfaces, orientated to give the people seated in them a view of the presenter at the far end. You find your squad, grabbing a workstation behind Azara, who is strapped in behind Kitty. Jay is in the process of looking for his own squad, you assume.
"You," Azara says, twisting around to look at you as you work your straps, "have been holding out on me, Pirate," she accuses.
You shrug, still looking smug. "Maybe," you say, casting your eyes across the room to Jay, who has found Ryan and Cam. The three of them are heading toward you now.
Azara scoffs theatrically, turning to give Kitty an aggrieved expression. "'Maybe', she says!"
Kitty only sighs, trying not to look too openly amused. As he takes the empty workstation across from hers, Ryan is wearing that specific expression that he only ever seems to get while dealing with you, Azara, or both.
"Jay, you and Pirate have been holding out on us!" Azara tells him as he takes the workstation behind Ryan.
Jay shrugs inexpressively. "Maybe," he says. Azara groans.
You love how much of a bad influence you've been on that man already. You flash him a smile, then turn to his squad leader. "Hey, Ryan, how's the kid?"
He's a little started by this question coming from you of all people. But he told you about his daughter in that little heart-to-heart you had right before everyone died, so it seems like the kind of thing to ask. "Growing like a weed," he says. Then adds, "She doesn't complain when I watch a movie with her."
Cam, who is now seated behind Jay, gives a quiet but highly uncharacteristic snort. "She's three, Ryan."
"Four next week," he corrects her.
"You're really lucky she takes after her mother," Cam tells him.
"Anyone have any idea what this is all about?" Azara asks. She's not done with you, but she's not completely insensate to the situation. You assume most of the hushed chatter between squads around the room is speculation on this general theme.
"Oh, I have an idea," you say mysteriously. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Cam squirming in her straps. She knows what you're referring to, obviously.
"Are you just saying that, or do you really know something?" Kitty asks, frowning.
"Who knows?" you say. "People do tell me things, you know."
"What, like 'fuck off' and 'go away'?" Ryan asks, at almost the exact same time as Kitty asks: "Do they, though?"
"Your skepticism hurts," you tell them, clapping a hand over your heart. "Truly!"
"No," Kitty says, voice as flat as Jay's, "you love it. Just say what you know already and stop dancing around it."
"Well," you begin, followed by a suitably dramatic pause, "I've heard—"
"Eyes front!" The voice that bellows this is a familiar one — it's Captain Leski, up at the front of the briefing room. All talk immediately quiets across the room, and eyes obediently turn toward him. Having gotten everyone's attention, he's pushing his way off to the side, where a line of other ship captains and similarly-ranked officers are watching — at a glance, you can tell that he'd tower over the others if they were standing.
Leski's departure leaves a lone figure at the front gripping the edge of the speaker's workstation with his one good hand. High Commander Bernard is a thin, dark man with an almost weary aura about him, and a nearly-black gaze that seems to pin whoever he's looking at to the spot. One arm ends in a pinned up jacket sleeve at the elbow — you've never heard a good explanation for why he's forgone a prosthetic, but it's certainly a good reminder of all he's sacrificed for the cause.
He speaks, calm voice magnified by his workstation's pickup. "Thank you, Captain," he says, without looking over at Leski. "Well, to not beat around the bush: As a few of you know, we have been receiving intelligence from an operative on the Galilean Moons for two years now. The information has been good — very good. Not the kind of thing the HSE would sacrifice to set up a honeypot."
That source is, of course, where the information that had led to your last mission had come from. The incomplete picture it had painted of the initial scenario had led to a third of the Esther's pilots dying. You deliberately hadn't mentioned it before, but not all of the stares you and Jay had gotten had been for you specifically. Everyone will have heard of the losses by now. You've often wondered about this source, who they might be among the HSE uppercrust on Ganymede. You'll have your curiosity satisfied soon enough, you suppose, even if it does turn out to be a trap after all.
Bernard continues: "We have been given word that they have acquired something vital enough that they will only deliver it in person. To that end, we will be hosting the Galilean Source shortly, along with representatives from several other Independence groups operating in the area. As you can imagine, security will be very tricky — that's where you all come in, along with anyone else we can tap on short notice."
"... so much for shoreleave," you catch Ryan muttering, barely audible. You feel a twinge of sympathy at the prospect of him missing his daughter's birthday over this, after seemingly having arrived just in time for it. Poor kid.
You won't be piloting regardless, and neither will Cam, with her own unit still undergoing maintenance. You catch sight of her briefly leaning up to murmur something into Ryan's ear. You don't quite catch what that's about, but you can probably just be nosey and find out later. Benefit of fucking their squadmate — one among many.
For now, though, a bigger worry is the other resistance groups being brought together 'under the same roof', so to speak. You're nominally all on the same side, but there are deep divides of ideology and methodology between you all. There are reasons you're not all the same group. You cooperate sometimes, but usually just in small ways unless something bigger is very plainly in multiple groups' best interests. Frankly, if the HSE collapsed tomorrow, you're fairly certain that you'd all fall to killing each other instead.
You have a sinking feeling that this might be a mess. This isn't helped when you see the list of rebel groups that will send a representative.
Article:
What are the most worrisome things about this list?
Pick two.
[ ] One of the other groups were glorified pirates, although they're claiming to have cleaned up their act
[ ] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[ ] One of the groups has a particularly hostile attitude to the USE, including your new allies, and this is an attempt to win them over
[ ] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
[ ] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
[ ] One of the other groups were glorified pirates, although they're claiming to have cleaned up their act
These two groups carried the least amount of relationship risk, has a lot of potential firepowers, and most likely a bunch of potential war crimes in the making.
Part of me thinks that they're kind of a trap option. Mostly because they seemed... too convenient.
[] One of the groups has a particularly hostile attitude to the USE, including your new allies, and this is an attempt to win them over
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
This one came out quicker than expected
EDIT:
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
Are they communists? Religious fundamentalists? Anti-vaccination activists?!
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
And also the obligatory group of pilots you're not quite sure of whether they are "just" mass murderers or angels of death clad in steel and chrome come to deliver the entire solar system from their sins and the burden of living.
Besides the ideological rift in-between the various factions our front consists of, there is also one particular immediate consideration in play here: Arianne.
Anyone who would try to hold her hostage is right out, imo, so that leaves out the pirates and the Empire-haters.
The pirates are, well, pirates, and I have no confidence they wouldn't sell out group out by capturing Arianne and ransoming her to her mother along with the info that she was spying on her for a few years. Yeah, I'm prejudiced against pirates and think they are untrustworthy, don't tell Princess God.
The USE-haters. I'm not sure on what ground they hate them, but there are very few scenarios allowing for it and them not having an even bigger hate-boner against the HSE.
I'm not saying the remaining two groups won't have a lot of problems concerning them, but I'm voting to minimize the chance that Arianne gets herself captured or killed, because goddamit, Jays are a national treasure and their happiness should be protected by constitutional laws. Since that's not happening in universe, I'm willing to go meta for this.
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
I think I had enough of pirates for the time being, and the group that has problems with USE in the meeting with an important HSE source with USE present is just too many complications.
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
I think this is a good balance. I like the stance of AIJ and this other rebel group trying to make peace. I also don't want more pirates that will take away Kana's specialness of being a pirate. While I'm pretty sus of these 'deadly people who we don't know much about' I still view them as a better choice then lame-pirates or the odds that the Us-haters and the USE-haters will notice they can work against both of us at once that I don't want them together.
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
We can't pick the pirate option - that's our gig. As far as the other, if we're going to get shot in the back, I'd rather it be personal. We probably deserve it.
I'm interested in the whole "not piloting" thing - are we going to be a bridge bunny?
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[X] One of the groups has a particularly hostile attitude to the USE, including your new allies, and this is an attempt to win them over
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
These two groups carried the least amount of relationship risk, has a lot of potential firepowers, and most likely a bunch of potential war crimes in the making.
I'd argue they carry out a lot of relationship risk. Either of them would be perfectly willing to blow right through our relationships and the people we have them with, if it benefitted their goal.
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
[x] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[x] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
I'm not saying the remaining two groups won't have a lot of problems concerning them, but I'm voting to minimize the chance that Arianne gets herself captured or killed, because goddamit, Jays are a national treasure and their happiness should be protected by constitutional laws. Since that's not happening in universe, I'm willing to go meta for this.
[X] One of the other groups were glorified pirates, although they're claiming to have cleaned up their act
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
We know how to handle pirates, and I'll take "deadly and effective" over "hostile". Hell, the "effective" part is the only one of these that got a positive modifier!
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
I vote for them because the other two are too much risk of immediatly derailling the mission (by taking Adrianne hostage)
but I fully expect the "bury the hatchet" guys to once again doing a war crime
and the other group to betray us as soon as someone give them a bigger check to do it.
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
[X] One of the other groups were glorified pirates, although they're claiming to have cleaned up their act
Differences of ideology and personal enmity are more worrisome to me. These two seem more predictable.
[X] One of the groups has a deadly enough reputation to give you serious pause, for all that they're scarily-effective
[X] One of the groups has a very bloody history with the AIJ, and this is part of an attempt to bury the hatchet
Picking the anti-USE faction introduces too many complications. I'm split between pirates and the anti-AIJ faction though and would be willing to change my vote if someone can convince me. On one hand, having an opposing faction would serve as an interesting foil and I'm kinda interested in seeing the principles of the AIJ versus the other factions. On the other hand, I really really do not want this to blow up in our faces and trying to make amends with a faction that was considered our enemy at some point might go horrifically wrong.
Well, yes. But pirates aren't known for their unity, and diminishing our narrative weight by going from "the ex-pirate" to "one of the ex-pirates" could be lethal.
