~January 5th, 141 AH~

~Sector Leo, somewhere along the coasts of Terra Nebulo~

Asena Shiranui pointed her faded-gold machine toward the eastern horizon and the hope that bloomed beyond a rain of [TEARS].

Today, she flew on a simple escort-and-retrieval mission. The scout drones had picked up potential images of revitalized flora—as well as definitive signs of remnant Syntropy activity. Lucinia Mauri, Sector Leo’s on-site revitalization specialist, had been tasked with retrieval, but of course, given the threat of a Nautilus unit stalking the surrounding body of water, the young Gaertner had also been assigned two combat-grade Eidolons for protection.

Asena pilotted one such Eidolon: the [NAGINATA]-wielding M-024 that she’d gotten to know very well over the course of nearly a year. Makiri Shiranui made up the other half of the partnership, nestled within an ES-V sporting fresh crimson paintwork as well as a newly repaired right arm.

For Asena herself, this would be her 28th deployment since the end of the Syntropy War, which meant she was just two shy of qualifying for mandatory retirement from ‘combat’ duty. Soon, a fresh batch of proto-Reiter graduates would take over, thus minimizing the risk of permanent Psychic deterioration in those that continued to fight in this new era of ‘non-Tethered combat’. Although… with any luck, Asena hoped, humanity would soon dispense with the need for combat personnel altogether.

Yet, all this also meant she had rather complicated feelings about Makiri flying alongside her. For this was his first post-war deployment, after a months-long recovery from various ailments both Somatic and Psychic, and even though he should’ve been already retired in view of the length and density of his prior service. It was, of course, Makiri himself that had insisted on returning to active duty (against the protests of the entire Shiranui clan), and Ghata Vakta, being the thoughtless spineless non-leader that he was, had given his old comrade special dispensation to do so.

It all put Asena in a rather irritable mood as she escorted Lucinia’s worker Eidolon toward the eastern horizon and the promise of new life that awaited beyond a gloam of red tears. So irritable, in fact, that she sought any number of ways to distract herself from her own thoughts, chief among them being a light conversation with the mission’s VIP.

“Gosling Alpha, this is Dancer. Permission to speak freely?”

“…”

“Gosling Alpha?”

“Oh! That’s me, isn’t it? Um, of course, Ase—Dancer, go ahead.”

“Tell me again about our retrieval target for today? I noticed… an unusual level of excitement among the revitalization team. How is this one different to the other samples we managed to recover so far?”

“Um, it’s a good question, Asena. I’d say the reasons for us to be excited are mainly twofold, the first being the conditions for revitalization observed around the easternmost coast of Terra Nebulo, and the second being the actual organism that was depicted on the drone images.”

“It was… a flower, is that right?”

“A whole bed of flowers, yes! We’ve never seen anything like it, and honestly, we’re all just pinching ourselves, hoping it’s real. I mean, after months of diving into caves to scrape off miniscule amounts of algae... if this is real, it truly feels like a miracle.”

“And you think such a thing was made possible only because of this… particular environment in Terra Nebulo?”

“It’s a reasonable assumption, yes. Ever since the war ended, we’ve been able to detect the presence of [TEARS] in pretty well every corner of the planet, but this is the first time we’ve seen them in such concentration and duration. It’s a… a veritable storm of [TEARS], and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s hiding even more surprises for us!”

Asena fell silent then, reflecting on her bizarre new reality where the presence of red gloamy particles that fell from the sky—[TEARS]—was widely credited with a barren planet’s gradual yet observable revitalization. It of course followed a certain kind of logic, one that Asena herself subscribed to whole-heartedly, having seen—and fought—the erstwhile creations of the very same [TEARS]. After everything that had happened, everything she’d seen and lived through, she didn’t think it a bridge too far to believe that the planet was mending itself, and that it did so by feeding on the disembodied secretions of a motherly figure that once called it home. In fact, Asena even had her own inkling as to why this particular corner of the planet happened to receive an inordinate share of the red nourishing rain.

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The Nexus doesn’t discriminate. It only knows to heed the calls of those who sing loudest… or perhaps longest in this case…

Presently, the trio approached the peninsula that jutted out from Terra Nebulo’s eastern coasts, and the ‘storm’ in Lucinia’s description became immediate reality. Unprecedented concentration and duration of [TEARS]. The Gaertner hadn’t exaggerated, and Asena’s combat instincts danced to the fore with an urgency she hadn’t felt in many days, as the severely reduced visibility put her on high alert.

“Gosling Alpha, on me. And stick close.”

Yet, despite her heightened senses, it was Makiri—and his immaculate knowledge of [THE INEVITABLE]—that proved sharpest.

“Incoming. Directly to your 3 o’clock.”

With a splash of water that momentarily dissolved the red gloam, a Nautilus’s tentacle shot across a corner of Asena’s vision. She turned to it with speed, thanks in no small part to Makiri’s warning, and truncated the tentacle with a precise swing of [NAGINATA]. She then wasted no time to dive down and finish the job by burying her blade into the ‘soft’ underside of the Nautilus’s shell.

The fight was over in a matter of seconds, and so efficient had Asena’s movements been that her overdrive gauge had barely filled up a third of the way. It was to be expected. She was, after all, a seasoned combat veteran nearing retire—

Just then, a second obsidian tentacle appeared from the unseen shadows behind Asena, this time flying straight toward the worker Eidolon that was the mission’s VIP. Asena felt its presence and saw the moment a red marker flickered onto her radar display, but by then, it was too late for her to—

Asena spun anyway, just in time to see a blue [WINCHESTER] round cut off the tentacle before it could reach Lucinia’s Eidolon. This was quickly followed by the blue shockwave of a [MJOLNIR] finisher: just as efficient and just as deadly as it’d ever been.

For a moment, Asena could do nothing but breathe hard into the solitude of her cockpit, as her heightened senses gave way to the after-horror of a close shave with disaster. But soon enough, the combined poise and experience of her [REVENANT] selves came back to the fore, bringing with them a measure of much-needed calm.

“Thank you,” she said simply. Even after everything she’d seen and lived through, she still didn’t quite know how to talk to her oldest brother.

Another moment passed between them, long enough to make Asena wonder if Makiri might not say anything at all. Then—

“Don’t mention it. This is what I do.”

And that was that. The return mission of Akropolis’s most seasoned combat veteran. Form is temporary, class is permanent.

Asena met this realization with equal parts hesitant relief and cautious hope. Relief because even she could accept and understand why Makiri Shiranui felt the need to postpone his retirement for as long as possible. And hope because… she was cautiously optimistic that he, she, and everyone of their allies would soon have no choice in the matter.

With the Syntropy threat dealt with, a routine mission had become even simpler. Or it should have. Instead, the trio was faced with a new problem: that of actually finding the patch of revitalized flora that had been touted as something of a miracle. They flew up and down the easternmost coast of Terra Nebulo, only to be beset by ever worsening visibility. The veil of [TEARS]—a red haze—was so thick here that the three Eidolons were in real danger of bumping into and destroying a bed of flowers before they had any chance to sample it.

“Gosling Alpha, should we call off the search? Maybe wait for better visibility?”

“No! I mean… please don't. I know it’s here somewhere. If we could just—”

Suddenly, Asena’s world changed in the blink of an eye.

As if in deference to a gust of divine wind—as if in greeting an old friend—the red haze, along with all the [TEARS] it contained, parted. The shift was abrupt and total, instantly revealing the full extent of what the scout drone had tried to capture amidst a metaphysical storm of memories and intents.

And Asena saw that the Gaertner hadn’t exaggerated. If anything, Lucinia had undersold her discovery. For stretching before Asena and her faded-gold machine was a planet she remembered but never knew.

Cloudless heavens. Vast sky-blue ocean. And atop a sheer cliff: not one, not a bed, but an entire field of glistening red flowers.

The flowers and their lurid, vibrant redness filled the outcropping of land that formed the cliff along the coast. And even now, they spread their presence further inland, onto the rest of Terra Nebulo and perhaps even beyond—as if they meant to paint the whole world in life and the hope contained therein.

Asena saw, understood, and wept.

As she wept silently amidst the red gloam that diffused into her cockpit, she filled the chasm within her chest with as many of her [REVENANT] selves as she could collect. And she reached out to stitch her own thread—her own heartfelt farewell and greeting—into the endless fabric of the universe.