Meet-n-Greet

[cityship]

After being released from stasis, having the slime removed from their bodies and clothed in the creepy, pulsing leaf-suit that everyone wore, and being taken to the Weapons & Possessions lockers to collect their belongings, the new arrivals would find themselves standing in the Observation Deck. Round windows lined the fleshy walls, revealing the bright display of lights that was inter-dimensional travel. They would also discover that there were people--members of the command staff and crew that had woken earlier--waiting for them.

Comments

[zu-sein.livejournal.com]

"Well...that's always a good thing, right?" he says almost apologetically. "Our war just ended too, but I don't know how things turned out afterwords."

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

He nods. "It is. I don't know how long it'll last, but for now there's peace." And his expression is now quite sympathetic. "Why were they fighting in your world?"

[zu-sein.livejournal.com]

"Alien invasion, 30 years ago. Most of humanity was wiped out, the rest went into hiding. My home island was actually a project to genetically engineer pilots capable of using Nothung-model Fafners, which were specifically designed to resist the Festum's mind reading abilities."

He sighs.

"Me and my friends didn't know anything until about a year ago. Our parents, who were the people in charge of the project, hid the island from the rest of the world so we could live a normal, peaceful life until the time came to fight."

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

For a moment, there's genuine shock on Kira's face, but it quickly vanishes, replaced with something sad. "I'm... sorry. That has to be hard." He's tempted to say something more, to identify with the other young man's genetic engineering - he is a Coordinator himself, after all - but ... it doesn't seem like the type. "And you won the war."

[zu-sein.livejournal.com]

"It's...tough. But you learn to accept it somewhat, at least."

He'd lost a number of friends because of everything, but at the very least he knew there were still people left back home, waiting for him to return.

"We didn't so much win the war, as figure out how to make peace with the Festum. They're a hive mind, so their way of thinking is completely different from ours. It wasn't until they assimilated..."

He pauses for a moment, his brows furrowing slightly.

"...some humans...that a couple of them began developing distinct personalities. Those ones began to sympathize with the humans, and we figured out a way we could coexist in peace."

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

He nods again, and he can't help but seem a bit content at that. "That's good, then," Kira responds quietly. "People assume the only way to win a war is to beat the enemy completely, but... that just causes more hatred. If you can coexist, then that's better off for everyone, isn't it?"

[zu-sein.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully," Kazuki said with a solemn tone. "The adults had lived with the war against the Festum for the past thirty years. It's them I'm worried about not being able to accept peace."

He shakes his head and sighs. There wasn't much he can do about it right now.

"You said you were in a war too, right? If you don't mind my asking, what was it over?"

[kirasaves.livejournal.com]

"That's true," he looks out the window at the stars. "They've probably lost a lot. It might be hard for them."

At Kazuki's question, he feels a slight twinge of discomfort, but pushes it away. "In my world, there are genetically-enhanced people, too... they're called Coordinators. There are a lot of Naturals - people who aren't genetically modified - who were afraid of what Coordinators could do, and there were a lot of Coordinators who just saw every Natural as inherently inferior."

"Even though most of the Coordinators went up to live in PLANTs - space colonies in orbit - there was still a lot of tension between them and the Naturals down on Earth." Kira's expression is distinctly sorrowful, now. "It got to the point where an anti-Coordinator group took control of an Earth Alliance ship and destroyed a PLANT with a nuclear missile, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians."

He looks back at Kazuki. "It was a horrible tragedy, but when the PLANTs retaliated against Earth in revenge... both sides were just causing more and more pain. They were giving each other more reasons to continue to fight."