Lina followed Yuren as they cleared the Eisendrache's hull, closing the loading ramp and sealing it tight before sitting on a crate inside. Yuren continued his indecipherable silence as she frowned and walked away, confused about his motives and bewildered as to why he just can't tell her.
Lina followed him to the ship's infirmary, watching as Yuren carefully put Bei down onto the examination table before placing a hand on her smooth stomach.
"Yuren... what are you about to do?" Lina interjected, and Yuren sighed.
"Esotonia said there's a chance, however small, I will try. So I had her teach the thing your about to see." His hand hovered over the woman's abdomen, the center of her core where the body connected.
"T-teach?"
He said nothing more, and resonance surged from his palm, the red energy extending like tendrils to surround Bei's inert form before covering her abdomen, piercing her flesh directly.
Lina watched in shock and horror at the sight, holding her breath as she continued to observe. "W-what?! No! Don't tell me you were serious?!"
Suddenly, her body flashed a few times and convulsed with electrical flashes coming from the tendrils attached to her core. Bei's eyes suddenly fluttered open, and she arched her back from the sharp pain.
The red threads turned a golden hue, which caused the android woman to strain harder before the blonde's back slammed down onto the cold surface again.
A brilliant light filled the interior as the transformation to restore the connection began, followed by a thunderous wave of energy pushing against both Yuren and Lina.
The commander remained steadfast and unmoved, yet Lina slid across the floor with the immense force slamming her into the wall.
After managing to rein in the rapid waves of energy spilling from her body, Yuren managed to restore Bei's connection to her body, the scars of war vanishing, leaving only smooth, silky skin, free of wounds of any sort.
Silence fell again as he picked her body up, cradling her to his chest, her head against his neck.
Lina watched quietly from afar, unsure of how to process what she just saw. After everything she'd endured with the commander, this was too much to handle, but seeing this side of him only proved one thing. He was indeed unique compared to the rest of his species.
Awe immediately struck her as she noticed Bei had started breathing while her energy seemed to start pulsing with a newfound urgency. Impossible. An android was supposed to have no need for breathing, and yet she was! If Lina didn't know better, she'd think the commander...
"Permission to speak commander?" Lina raised her hand as he lay the blonde back down.
"What is it?" He sighed.
"Just... Just what are you?" Her face spoke more of bewilderment and fear than hatred or disappointment.
"Esotonia said I'm the lord of all Meteorn. The one known as the Calamity class." He made sure to adjust the synthetic blanket around Bei's body, making sure she was warm. "Though frankly I'm not too sure exactly what that means."
Silence fell in the room as the blonde woman slept; her skin was no longer cold but very warm to the touch.
Lina looked down at her rifle, the tension and tenseness causing her arms to visibly tremble while tears threatened to fall; her own existence meant nothing after being forced to confront the blatant lie her imprinting and data informed her of.
Here in front of her was the supposed enemy of humankind, the so-called reason she was created, and yet at this moment her mind was at war between her programming and core and what was happening in the present.
In front of her wasn't some merciless being that only sought destruction; it was someone who went through great lengths to bring back someone he cared for.
in this very moment, she thought, maybe he's right to leave the Empire behind; this isn't what she envisioned her life to be for the last twelve years, and then it was revealed to her how twisted the intentions of the Nova Genesis Project were.
"I have a very important question..." Lina muttered softly, refusing to make eye contact with the commander out of uncertainty.
"You can talk to me about whatever's bothering you Lina."
She paused, thinking through her words carefully.
It took her several seconds before she came up with the words. "It's absolutely certain that the Empire will brand you as a traitor. And... we, the 701st was one of their most prized battalions that they definitely won't abandon the technology. They will rally their allies against us and we'll be fighting against humanity, but, do you see humanity as an enemy?"
Yuren considered her words silently, thoughtfully closing his eyes in hesitation. "Humanity is not my enemy. But the exploitation of the Meteorn can no longer continue in the manner it has up to now. If anyone gets in the way of our freedom then they will pay the consequences. And if I have to crush the Empire... then I'll do so."
With that, he turned and headed out the door to allow the woman to regain some energy while she recovered.
Lina exhaled as the commander left. Perhaps it was reckless, maybe unreasonable even, to try and find a sense of purpose now when she has what she's believed in uprooted in front of her. Maybe it was her inner Meteorn talking, but all the conflicted feelings she had about the commander finally coalesced into what he was standing for, not something he actually is.
"Master, are you serious about what you said?" Naiola asked as he made his way toward the bridge.
Yuren nodded, "Isn't conflict with the Empire inevitable?" He entered the command room and stood in the center.
"That is correct, the chance of total war is quite high." Naiola stated.
"As long as they persist, there's no escape from it. Is there any chance we can defeat them with the Meteorn forces we have?"
"If you intend to completely decimate humanity's civilization, that should not be too difficult." Naiola answered back.
"That's not what I meant... I meant just the Empire." Yuren clarified, trying not to cause an incident.
"The Empire cannot match the power of all Meteorn in combat. Recall the damage Nidhogg caused in the capital city's northern district. If the Meteorn coordinated their attacks, a force the size of the Empire's can be easily eliminated. Eclipse alone can wipe them out if it desired."
Hearing that bit of information helped affirm what he needed. With that decided, he turned to the Android, "Naiola... I want to turn the rest of the battalion androids into Meteorn and remove their imprinting... but..."
"We cannot." Naiola shot him down immediately, predicting his next question. "The immediate reaction of their core returning to Meteorn form is unknown. Chances of hysteria or immediate hostility are very high. The androids of the 701st all have cores from higher class meteorn of unknown types."
"I can control it. It won't happen."
"Without knowledge, and lack of proper training this is not recommended. It is possible to risk the lives of those soldiers. Not only that but their first commanding officer could not fully utilize resonance. The only ones that are able to do so without proper training are you and Bei." Naiola cautioned.
"Without proper training? There isn't a course of documentation for this. I'm going to use a technique taught to me by the apocalypse class Meteorn. I don't think you can judge the success with the library of Information from humanity." Yuren's confidence in Naiola's assessment of a successful completion has many flaws; after all, the Meteorn controlled the continent at some point before disappearing.
"I understand. I'm lacking knowledge of the Meteorn's abilities outside of the recorded instances of combat. I look forward to the knowledge you gain from your Meteorn allies." Naiola admitted.
Reaching into the subspace he held onto, one of Esotonia's abilities he found useful. Yuren pulled out an empty core. "This one will be for you Naiola, though... I don't know if it's even possible to do something like this since you're an AI and not an android. It shouldn't hurt to try right?"
He carefully presented the core to the android and allowed her to analyze it at her own pace. He never actually saw the emotionless android's face change, nor did he know what she was supposed to look like with expressive eyes; she never showed any sort of facial expression. As far as he knew, she didn't need to be able to feel anything; after all, she wasn't programmed to feel an emotion.
Naiola lowered her head and took the core from the commander's hand. The silver metallic object seemed rather small and round, while inside it, the core seemed to have tiny golden fragments. Though she had no way of confirming whether it could accept the core of a meteorn into her hardware or how the core would react.
She felt as if the commander was somehow using her, not that it particularly bothered her, nor did she feel like she could counter such a request. After all, it wasn't something she could calculate the outcome of, as she had very little knowledge of Meteorn lifeform structure and code; the request was impossible to predict.
She wasn't sure how to move forward for the first time. Her inner workings had several processes running along various levels, trying to solve the problem. There simply was no appropriate response for it, no data to even address the problem. No possibilities could be read or processed without context or data to draw from.
"Commander... I apologize, this request is something I am unable to answer without prior knowledge." She spoke.
But Yuren saw all the slight details, almost like she was expressing fear? Or perhaps she was really giving off a 'scared' expression? Either way, it was a first for her to visibly display how uncomfortable she was by doing something, as she just admitted she didn't know.
"Let's find out together then." He gently took her hand and, with a gentle touch, set the core into it. His eyes grew brighter as he stared at her and reached up towards her face, cupping her cheeks with his hands as she struggled not to pull away in reflex.
"Hmm..." Yuren closed his eyes, feeling the energy from her circuits pulse. The warm digital streams of binary data flow through her.
It may have been a lofty goal, but she wasn't like Bei or any of the other androids with cores of Meteorn. In comparison, her anatomy and design were entirely different.
"I'll just have to ask Esotonia what can be done. I don't know how to proceed either." Yuren released his hold on the android and smiled.