“So what exactly is the problem here?” Bianca asked dryly.

“It’s not working.”

“You’ve mentioned. What exactly isn’t working?”

“My Great Machine won’t activate.”

Bianca sat a bit straighter at the declaration. “Won’t activate?”

“Yeah, it keeps sending the same error code. Jenny, Benaiah, Emily, Maria, Esperanza, even Lumi… None of them are registering as pilots at all!”

“I see.” Bianca said, calmly sending out a page to Esperanza for clarification and confirmation. “At the risk of sounding flippant did you try turning it on and off again?”

The look of anger on Penelope’s face quickly morphed into one of shock before she abruptly stood up and ran from the room. The news that the GM that Elijah had borrowed was malfunctioning was worrying. Crux as a company were known for safety and reliability so to have a GM act in such an uncharacteristic manner was concerning. There seemed to be only one way to deal with this though she didn’t like it.

“You wanted to see me Ma’am?” Esperanza Alonso made herself known.

“Please have a seat.”

Zaza walked in with an air of melancholy, She had heard that Elijah had been found half dead, buried in a sand dune and knew that it was her fault. Had she not gone along with his terrible plan, just stopped and thought about it for more than a second instead of just going with the flow he’d have never been in such a bad situation. That he got to walk away from the attention of a Vain Glory at all was a blessing. With all these things swirling around her mind she took a seat and faced her boss.

“It seems the problems on this job just keep adding up.” Bianca said.

“I’m sorry Ma’am. I accept full responsibility. I planned to tender my resignation after our obligations here ended but if that’s unacceptable I understand.”

“I don’t see how this could be your fault.”

“I’m the one who made the GM such an obvious target in the first pla-”

“Esperanza. Stop.” Bianca said holding up a hand. “What do you think we are talking about here?”

“I-I almost got Elijah killed?” She stammered.

Bianca sighed drumming her fingers across her desk rhythmically. Now was not the time to assign blame, nor would it be particularly helpful to lose a pilot that filled such a vital role. Besides, they had bigger issues to deal with at the moment.

“We are going to set that aside for a minute. Alright?”

Esperanza hesitantly nodded.

“Exactly what is wrong with Penelope’s GM?”

“Ah, that. Frankly Ma’am I have no clue. All the damaged internals have been replaced, the armor is all set, the weapons are properly registered… We reset all the settings more times than I can properly count. We even tried registering a new pilot and nothing has worked. The GM refuses to activate and seems to be on some kind of time lock.” Esperanza explained.

“I see. For now we’ll send it off to Brumal Bastion for further analysis, I know that Crux would offer to replace it but it may be more valuable to study the problem further.” She said, thinking of Elijah’s need for a Vain Glory. She’d rather he experiment with that over any of the cult salvaged suits.

“I don’t think Penny will be at all happy with that Ma’am.”

“She’ll be properly compensated, if her specific tweaks and customizations are on hand let me know and we’ll have a new Great Machine shipped out with her specifications at once.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

The silence between them seemed to stretch out before Esperanza could no longer take it.

“I still feel responsible for what happened to Elijah.”

“What exactly did you hear about that?”

“He was apparently thrown out of the cockpit when the Pilot of the Cerberus lost her damn mind and tried to hijack the GM. I heard from a friend at medical that Doctor Chase had to come all the way out here for his treatment. I should have known better than to let him goof off in a Vain Glory.”

“Esperanza, you did your job to the best of your ability. The worst injury Elijah suffered besides a broken arm was a bruised ego.”

“Really?”

“Yes really. I need you to get Penny to stop fiddling around with her GM and get it ready for transport. In fact I’d like you to deliver it personally and help our team there figure out what’s wrong. Can you handle that?”

“Yes Ma’am. Who am I reporting to on arrival?”

“Adam for the time being. Now let’s head out, you have your new tasks to deal with and I have a birthday ceremony to attend.”

======================

Evona Al Aziz the Crown Princess of The Holy Republic of Varalfa had awaited this moment since she was a young girl. This Birthday marked her entrance into society as a woman grown, ready to leave her home and carve her own path before returning wiser to take the throne. The towering doors with the royal crest leading to the throne room were thrown open wide, allowing admittance to the various heads of state and religious leaders vital for the day to day functions of the country. Traditionally they each would come to greet her as she sat on the throne, Evona however decided to eschew tradition and rather than sitting on the throne she sat perched upon the open hand of Falak.

While members of the press were invited to attend the festivities the only cameras allowed onsite were drones carefully built and programmed by SSS. The livestream had been made available freely, so the shock on the faces of each guest as they entered to greet the princess was captured in stunning quality. Below the throne room visible through the massive ruby floor was the audience chamber filled beyond capacity with well wishers and supplicants that had made their pilgrimage on foot, awaiting their turn to greet the princess on this special day. Evona knew that the ceremony would not end until the arrival of her parents and they would not arrive until each person below had had time to greet her.

Once each clan head, priest, and politician above had taken their place she gave the signal for the people below to enter. Each was guided by Saif and Bianca standing off to the side would mentally feed her the persons name, adding to her general mystique.

======================

Elijah had watched the beginning of the ceremony from the comfort of a training room he Adam and Nadia had appropriated. On a table to their sides sat various electronics in different states of disrepair. Their focus at the moment was trying to determine how functional something needed to be for his power to affect it.

“I like this one cousin.” Adam said, taking a large bite from an apple. “A history lesson for you if you are interested?”

“Sure.” Elijah readily agreed.

“The Holy Republic of Varalfa has always been a rather silly place. Surrounded by sillier places. They were founded on two principals that they were willing to fight and die for. The freedom to worship whatever Gods they chose, and that all people were undeniably created equal. As you can imagine cousin, their neighbors were less than pleased with these declarations. For generations they bled and struggled and died defending a coastal stretch of land. they were deemed unimportant by the usual global players and so with no one to rely on but themselves they quickly became prodigious fighters and luckily for them their little plot of land was discovered to be rich in certain natural resources so for people who are clever and careful, arming themselves is trivial.” Adam took another bite of his apple and considered his next words carefully.

“After generations of a delicate balance being maintained a new technology was introduced. Miraculous creations meant for construction in harsh environments. The Vain Glory. They were a novelty at first, strange things that only a handful of women could safely control but soon their potential would be realized. Tell me cousin, did they teach you about the Menbung (멘붕) incident in school?”

“They didn’t teach much, a woman went apeshit in a bulldozer and took out an office building or something?” Elijah said uneasily, trying hard to remember.

“Close but not quite cousin. You are familiar with Idols yes? Young girls, in some places boys, whose job is to look pretty and sing? Well some less reputable management stables pimp their charges to the rich and influential.”

“Jesus Christ Adam, for real?”

“да, Now I am firm believer in the right for people to use their bodies as they please but selling children is wrong. This idol management group did not think so. This particular group decided it would make a great publicity stunt to have one of their girls pilot a Vain Glory. Once she was safely inside and realized what she could do? Her managers died, CEO’s across the country died, a few influential actors and military men died. It was a bloodbath that no one could stop until the Vain Glory ran out of power.”

“This is significantly different from what I was taught in school.” Elijah said.

“That’s not surprising. Where was I going with this? Ah right, Varalfa. After the power of the Vain Glory was proven The country purchased as many as they could get their hands on. In a country that encouraged young girls to learn and grow while their neighbors killed them for walking without a male escort? They had no shortage of volunteers ready to fight. Your Little Queen presents her Falak for all to see, reminding them of her proud heritage.”

“Yeah, she’s definitely one of a kind.” Elijah agreed shaking his head. “Wait, if everyone there is packing heat how did those cultists hit us so hard?"

“That’s a good question.” Nadia said, idly spinning around in a plush looking office chair.

“The short answer? Money.” Adam replied.

“And the not so short answer?”

“As we just discussed, the country is not on the best of terms with it’s neighbors any of which could turn a blind eye from their borders for a price. Adding to the ease of infiltration is the location of the palace. Our base here is the closest structure for miles and the distance between cities is long. The biggest point however is that that was not all that large an assault.” Adam explained, finishing the last bite of his apple. “While it may have seemed very exciting to you, nine amateurs and a few foot soldiers is not all that dangerous. Had our communications not been intercepted and our drones tampered with they would not have gotten as far as they did.”

“Are you sure you should be telling him all this Adam?” Nadia asked.

“Who will stop me? His uncle Eli would let him know, His mother will disapprove quietly but understand that what I tell him makes him ready for wider world, and Chris? Chris is a joke.”

“That’s cool and all but our radios and drones can’t be compromised. Sunny and I are better than that.” Elijah said.

“Pride’s no good cousin, but seeing your and your sister’s work I won’t say it’s not well earned. The radios can’t be digitally manipulated true, but when the communications officer is a spy? When the drones power is drained right before a patrol? In this world things are only impossible until someone does it. You and I are living breathing examples of that eh? Though the answers are mostly unexpected rather than impossible.”

“How’d all of this get figured out?”

“Oh that’s the easiest part of all. You brought me a few of them to question, they spilled names who spilled more names and once we had all of their sympathizers we dealt with them. Mostly first timers hired on to shore up our numbers, temporary contracts. Any long time contractors with us are aware that we match bribes and are more than happy to employ and house their families in our support facilities in many major cities. Programming, accounting, construction, admin, farming. We take care of ours.”

As Elijah sat and digested all of this information his phone began to ring. He didn’t need to check the caller id to know who it was, the ringtone gave it away.

♪♪♫You are my sunshine, my only sunshine~♫♪♪