The Major Consequence

[Ramke]

The Intelligence officer had been in the small room, awake, for an indiscernibly long time. She was lying on a crude bed, her arms hoisted upwards by shackles made out of some sort of extremely durable metal. The metal had already cut deep into the skin from trying to escape them, or was it simply because they were too tight? It was hard to remember for Airi as she was constantly slipping in and out of consciousness in a trance-like state. Memory certainly wasn't something that could be working fine as this was happening. There were many enigmatic questions that were left unanswered.

All she could remember was the briefing of the operation 'Kumo no Ami' and her venture into the system that was causing the weird phenomena to appear in Kusari's capital system. Everything after that is just.. blank. She had a feeling that she didn't simply blank out and there's something major missing, but it was just too difficult to remember. Was she in a military hospital after escaping the system? Has something caused her to black out? Why are those shackles there, was this a mental hospital? The questions kept coming, with no answers to respond with. It was hard to even think as the pilot was constantly pressed down by a combination of headaches, massive exhaustion and the constant dark, which prevented her from escaping the desire to just rest.

The lights of the hallway beyond of the windowed door flicker into life. The indirect rays of light entered Kurokawa's dilapidated eyes, snapping her out of trance...

[Loyola]

The sound of closing footsteps was heard in the room. Apparently someone was closing through the corridor. Sound was becoming louder and louder and then just began to fade, and the perfect silence reigned again. After a few minutes the distant sound of footsteps appeared again, it looked like this one was made by different person. The person came closer to the door and after a quck security check it was opened and blonde woman, dressed in Outcast uniform, entered the room.

Loyola looked down at Airi and came closer to her bed. " Greetings. I see you finally woke up. " She closed the door behind her. " Please, tell me how do you feel? Are you able to speak or I shall come later? " She said with barely noticeable Hispanic accent. Her tone wasn't either warm or cold, and most were of a technical nature. I didn't sound as a manifestation of good manners and it wasn't intend to sound so.

Hispanic woman was waiting for the answer of Kusarian. She had a lot of time this day and this Kusarian will speak in one way or another.

---

[Ramke]

The intelligence officer's face lit up as someone entered the room, hoping to finally shed some light on what's going on and release her. It took her a few seconds for her eyes to adapt to the sudden brightness, she noticed the insignia of the uniform the 'guest' was wearing... Out of all the things to see coming through that door, an Outcast certainly wasn't something that Airi could have expected. A mix of of surprise and despair appeared painted on the agent's face as the realization came.

"What is an Outcast doing here? Who are you?" Kurokawa spoke, ignoring the questions that asked for her well-being. A small pause later, she added yet another question: "Where is this place...?"

[Loyola]

Loyola looked surprised and confused for a moment. How dare this Kusarian to..., but then looking at this prisoner, Loyola have realized: This person probably have no clue about the situation.

She somehow sighed and didn't move, few moment after she tool one step closer, keep looking directly on Airi. " You don't know where are you? Hm? " She paused carefully picking the words. " You see, my presence here is natural, yours isn't. "

Loyola moved her head a bit to the side. " You and your friends came to our home. To put it in a simple way, you came too far and have seen too much. " Smile appeared on her face. " Accordong to the documents that we got at the moment, your name is Airi Kurokawa, agent of the Kusari Intelligence. Am I correct? "

---

[Ramke]

"Documents?" They must have found and taken her identification card, there was no point in lying for Kurokawa. "That should be clear by itself if you've taken my ID..."

The Outcast's words shed some light on the situation. She failed to return back to Kusari. Something inside the agent ticked as hopelessness slowly seeped in. She began remembering what happened more clearly, the being surrounded by generators being attacked. She remembers explosions, both of the generators and.. the Eikyuu! They completely eradicated any of the forces the Kusarians brought into the fray. Little by little, the fragments and details of the entire encounter slowly came back...

"Am I on some Outcast installation?" She tests the shackles by pulling on them once more, but only pain followed and put an abrupt end to any desire to try again. "What do you even intend to do with me? Kill me? I won't be working in your plantations as a slave!"

[Loyola]

Loyola's smile became more wide and then she sighed. " KIll you? We had a perfect chance to do it. If we wanted to kill you, then you would not awake just now. " She paused and an ominous silence hung in the air for a few moments.

" You don't want to be a slave? That's interesting, wasn't you in position of a slave to your command officer who sent you to this mission? Or you think that you ever had a freedom? " She sat down on the bed's edge, close to Airi. " Maybe you had some illusions, but now you can freely look on your past. Also plantation work is an easy trifle complaring to what you can expect here. "

" This is not an "Outcast' installation, location is not that matter. Only thing that matters for you is that you have no chance to run. " Loyola wasn't lying, it was impossible for Airi to escape from Altair. " For your own good, I don't want you to do anything stupid. Only chance to ever leave this place is to cause our mercy. "

---

[Ramke]

"Like you people would be letting me leave! You're just talking nonsense! Illusions, freedom, I don't see what's the point of even mentioning all of this!" The intelligence officer began losing calm. This wasn't what she wanted to hear. To her knowledge, all of her comrades perished during what happened in the system they entered. A deep regret was constantly stuck in her subconscious mind - why was she the only one left?

The pilot's voice grew more and more emotional. The first time she's gotten someone to talk to since what happened in the Major system was a lunatic.

"Why am I here, then?!"

[Loyola]

Enma did not expect that Airi will lose her calm so fast. " Don't scream and don't panic. We have a lot of time, if you think that someone will ever try to save you. You are young, so we have a decates. " Loyola's voice was closing to whisper.

" Why you are here? I actually would like to hear it from you. How and why did you make this horrible mistake. If you want to see it from my point of view. Then I've seen how people betrayed you and left you to fight alone. Gladly you have a good reaction and I took your pod on my Rapier. I am surprised, why you aren't thankful. I've limited your freedom of movement for a bit, so you won't do anything stupid, until you realize your real position. "

---

[Ramke]

"It's a bit hard to be thankful when you wake up chained to a bed in a dark room without knowing anything of what happened..." Airi spoke more calm and silent, subconsciously mimicking the woman's tone of voice. "You're implying that you'd even let me walk around... whatever this place might be. We both know that's just a trick. You'd never let me go, would you?"

The pilot took her time to study the room now that it was lit, finding that there was nothing else in it. No furniture, nothing else - just a bland, empty room with a single bed. The metallic walls were a clear indicator that this is more likely a space station than anything else.

The Outcast's words were ringing true. The Kusarian expeditionary fleet stayed behind to make sure everyone left. They haven't even tried to do the same for our wing. They - the Order, the Rheinlanders, the Bretonians - took the opportunity to throw all of the attention towards us and sneak by as we were all dying under fire.

These thoughts spun around in Kurokawa's head as she delved into her memories of the recent events.

"I still don't know what do you even want from me..."

[Loyola]

Now, when Kusarian was becoming more reasonable, Loyola's voice sounds louder. " First of all, I want you need to trust me. Believe me, I understand that you had a friends and family that you used to trust, but. " She made a pause. " But they left in the past and at the moment only I can help you. This is how it happened to be. Your command sent you to suicide mission, after your family let you to trust yourself to such people. After it you was betrayed during the battle. If you will think about it, I cannot do anything worse than it. You cannot blame me for this situation, I only appeared as the relust of people throwing you into it. "

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