The warship, The Rakaila, hummed beneath Selenia's feet as the DMF-09 Arvan mobile frame prepared to launch from the linear catapult that extended as a long and thin platform from the hangar bay.

  The DMF-09 Arvan was the current mainstay of the Gaia Sphere Federation’s mobile frame force, as she had learned during her time aboard the Rakaila. It was painted in a black and dark red color scheme. Vaguely humanoid, it was a blend of sharp angles and curves.

  The mobile frame braced itself, crouching slightly down as it gripped a dummy rifle full of cartridges filled with paint in one hand and a large shield in the other for the mobile frame training matches that were underway in Alsium Two. Its movements were as graceful and natural as any living being that was alien to how mechanical it appeared, and from its industrialized origin from the factory that it originated from.

  The mobile frame was beautiful. Just as she thought that every mobile frame was beautiful in some way. They were such amazing, brilliant machines. Even if those machines, many times her size, were large enough to squish her within their five-fingered robotic hand like a crushed melon. Each of them was a work of art—the carefully constructed skeletal structure, the synthetic muscle fibers, the artificial nervous system, and the countless sensors and cameras embedded so naturally within its head through the sharp-angled visor that was its eyes. Even the harsh, sharp metal armor plates that protected it from head to toe were beautiful in a brutal sense. The DMF-09 Arvans had just as many similarities as there were differences to the SMF-07 Vetras that the Settlement Front Alliance used, the black and dark purple of the Vetras aside. In a way, they could be siblings who had to fight one another.

  Selenia had wanted to see the mobile frames up close with her own eyes, with everyone, rather than just in her private quarters aboard the Rakaila. She smiled at Rakaila, who stood at her side unblinking and stoic, both of them observing the life of the hangar bay from an elevated position as the crew went about their busy tasks.

  As the mobile frame, dozens of tons heavy, accelerated to high speed from the linear catapult, blue lightning flashed due to the friction generated by the catapult. It blurred and disappeared down the extended runway in an instant, taking off with a burst of its backpack thrusters. The launch sent a jolt of energy through Selenia, the vibrations and shaking coursing through her. And the sound of the machinery was loud enough to make her nearly cover her ears. It was electrifying.

  Selenia saw a faint smile, a hint of glee on Rakaila’s normally emotionless and stoic face, as another DMF-09 Arvan mobile frame began to move from its hangar bay berth to the launch catapult.

  She felt grateful to the Captain who let her out of the private quarters that had been assigned to her aboard the Rakaila. She hadn’t much else to do but read lately. She had taken the time to familiarize herself with the publicly available information afforded to her.

  The Rakaila was a warship. But the warship wasn’t just any warship like the countless vessels mass-produced by both the Settlement Front Alliance and the Gaia Sphere Federation from their fleet yards. She was a special one. Built during the End War, it had been a state-of-the-art warship that had been part of a limited production run of warships intended to serve as prototypes for a broader fielding of next-generation warships intended to win the End War against the Settlement Front Alliance. Incredibly advanced and just as costly, the Rakaila and the other warships of the class were never able to be mass-produced. But the Rakaila and her fellow warships of the class had been on the frontlines time and time again in some of the most harsh and notable battles of the End War.

  Even now, the Rakaila was still head and shoulders above most other warships that the Settlement Front Alliance and the Gaia Sphere Federation could field. It could even hover over the ground effortlessly under its power with its anti-gravity propulsion. Able to carry a large complement of war machines and accompanying personnel, it had been a serious force multiplier in the End War.

  Captain Rakaila caught Selenia staring at her. “It’s rude to stare.”

  Selenia flinched as the imitating unblinking crimson eyes of Rakaila turned towards her. She towered heads and shoulders above her, just as the warship Rakaila was head and shoulders above most warships.

  Selenia’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “Sorry. It’s just that the Rakaila is a beautiful ship.” And it was. Even if the warship Rakaila was a machine built for war, for killing and destruction, it was still a work of art. Every part of it, from the warship’s design down to the last nut and bolt, had been carefully thought of and constructed with great care.

  “Thank you,” Captain Rakaila said.

  “I meant the Rakaila,” Selenia clarified.

  “I am the Rakaila,” Captain Rakaila said, pointing to herself.

  Selenia stared in unblinking shock. “Do you mean the warship Rakaila?”

  “Yes. Did no one bother to tell you?” Rakaila sighed.

  Selenia shook her head. Neither had it been in the publicly available information she had read about the Rakaila.

  “Well, I suppose it’s understandable,” Rakaila said, indicating for Selenia to watch as the next DMF-09 Arvan mobile frame launched itself. They both looked on as more machines awakened, pilots inside, gearing up to follow their fellow pilots and machines.

  “I was one of the Gaia Sphere Federation’s weapon projects,” Rakaila said without looking at Selenia. Though Selenia couldn’t help but turn her attention and glance at Rakaila every so often. “Much like the DMF-09 Arvans you see here. A simple idea, you see. Spirits have already existed in one form or another on Gaia for millennia. Sometimes embedded inside buildings, places, objects, and so on. So, of course, the idea to mass-produce spirits and embed them inside a warship to increase the combat performance eventually came to someone’s mind. After all, the stalemate and deadlock of the End War led to a lot of thinking about how to break it. Not many of us want to think about the End War much. I suppose my crew forget that I’m the ship as well as the Captain.”

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  “I-I’m sorry…” Selenia replied mutely as Captain Rakaila turned towards her. What else could she say to that?

  “Cry me a river, would you?” Raikaila said as she rolled her crimson eyes, adjusting her long dark hair, sighing in annoyance. “What do you have to be sorry about?”

  ‘It’s just I’m from the Settlement Front Alliance,” Selenia said. “A princess of the Selenar Family. Of the Selenar Union. One of the key nations of the Settlement Fronts.” Selenia couldn’t help but feel guilt at how her family had been involved in such bloodshed, regardless of who had been right or wrong in the End War.

  “And which you had nothing to do with personally. I don’t care who or what you are princess,” Rakaila said. “It was before your time. I suppose you say, beyond the time.” Captain Rakaila laughed.

  Selenia chuckled awkwardly. She didn’t understand what the captain was referring to.

  Rakaila waved her off. “I suppose you wouldn’t get it. Never mind.”

  Rakaila walked up and put a black gloved hand on her shoulder. It was cold. Very cold. It was as if all the warmth in her body had suddenly left it. Selenia recoiled back, wincing.

  “Ah. Sorry,” Captain said, withdrawing her hand. “My current self that you see before you is simply a spiritual personification of myself and not an actual body. Sometimes, I forget that.” Rakaila chuckled.

  Selenia rubbed the spot where she felt as if the cold had burned her. Like crew, like Captain, she supposed. Then, a sudden image flashed through her mind. Those hands of Rakaila around her throat, choking her to death as she drained all the heat in her body. Selenia shuddered as she dispelled the thought from her mind. It wouldn’t be good to think of everyone as someone trying to think for her. Or a monster in disguise. Then again, wasn’t Captain Rakaila also a monster in the shape of a warship?

  Selenia thought of her brother Cesevial and how it was rumored that he had died in battle. Maybe it was from a proto-particle cannon like the many mounted on this warship? She thought of her brother, in a mobile frame, dying as he was enveloped and vaporized by a barrage of proto-particle cannons from a warship like this, screaming as his body was melted away. Or maybe from one of the mobile frames, or smaller turrets, or maybe—

  A sudden hand froze her solid again as the Captain caught her attention with a quick tap of her hand. Selenia turned her attention to the Captain.

  “You were thinking about yourself, or someone you know dying, right?” Rakaila said. “I can tell. It’s something I’ve known for.”

  “Y-Yes, I was,” Selenia said.

  “Most of my brothers and sisters who were born with me are dead for one reason or another,” Rakaila said. “To begin with, for those of us who were successfully born and not stillborn from the metaphorical womb, most of us didn’t survive the End War.”

  “I-I’m sorry,” Selenia said.

  “And there you go again,” Rakaila snapped back. “What do you have to be sorry about? It’s not like you personally did any of that. So stop thinking you’re responsible for things that you’re not responsible for.”

  “What you're saying makes sense, I know. But—” Selenia said.

  “It was war,” Rakaila sighed. “And I hate those who apologize for no reason. It waters it down, dilutes it, and makes it meaningless.” Selenia quieted under the stoic gaze of Rakaila. “What do you know about SETI?”

  Selenia shook her head. “Nothing much.”

  “SETI originated as an innocuous organization. When the Gaia Sphere Federation was founded, it was started as an organization dedicated to studying the stars and the cosmos. A hope for the future, you see. To turn our gaze towards the heavens above, as the Federation looked towards the stars to unite us all. Until the war started. And then the organization was redesignated the 17th Autonomous Corps. An independent autonomous unit that operates on its own with its own organic fleet and personel. And all those hopes and dreams that people had of a future that never came to be, lost in the fires of war.” Rakaila sighed. “I remember Captain August saying something to me once, back when I was just born and assigned to SETI. He was one of the people who had lived and remembered those more hopeful days.”

  Rakaila thought for a moment, then gave her a thumbs up as if imitating someone. “Don’t worry about the past too much. And don’t worry about the future either. Otherwise, you’ll forget about living in the present, and then you’ll really have to worry about the past and won’t be able to worry about the future either.”

  Selenia coughed. “That sounds like Captain August.”

  Rakaila gave her a faint smile. “It does, doesn’t it?” She crossed her arms. “Well, I’ve killed so many that even if you were to cram all of their corpses into me, into this ship, you wouldn’t be able to fit them all. So stop worrying so much about things that you needn’t worry yourself over. Listen here, little princess. Everyone has a story behind them. Big or small. On a world like this. You. Me. Even that little runt Aster.”

  Then a holographic display appeared to the side of both of them. As Selenia glanced over the rest of the hangar bay, holographic windows appeared everywhere else, too. The hundreds of busy crew had stopped to watch the displays.

  Then the sounds of mobile frames clashing outside hit her—clanks, chimes, and booms outside the warship of mobile frames, moving and struggling against one another. Cheers and shouts inside the hangar bay grew into one continuous roar as the mobile frames engaged in a mock battle.

  Rakaila smiled at her. “Now you said you wanted to see some mobile frames? Here you go. My sensors have it all on watch for everyone.”

  Selenia smiled back at the Captain as they both watched the mobile frames on the holographic display. Then, a sudden pat hit her back, which made her jump.

  “So enjoy,” Rakaila said. “It’s a large-scale combat practice of two teams each. And—” She looked at Selenia, who was busy shuddering, arms wrapped around herself, as her hand had drained all the body heat from her body again.

  “Ops. I forgot again,” Rakaila chuckled, slightly embarrassed as she rubbed her hair, as Selenia looked at her warily.

  Selenia sighed as she rubbed herself to warm herself up, staring at the mobile frames engaging in mock battle on the holographic display before them. Well, what did they say about SETI again? That SETI was where all the troublemakers went to?