PRESENT, HOTARU-HIMITSU STAGING AREA
Mitsuya Saito, Miyamae Kahori, and Kotoku Sui arrived within moments of each other taking the lift up to the conference room. Not a word passed between them-they were all engulfed in downloading the latest news from the ships returning from patrols at the edges of the nebula.
***
Mayumi and Yuka entered the Hotaru Star Fortress' conference room; the room square and was dimly lit with blue lighting around the room's exterior edges. It had twelve high-backed comfortable dark blue padded chairs around a circular table; the head chair sat slightly raised and had larger armrests than the others. The floor was polished black, giving little comfort reminding the Taisho of an armor bay.
Behind the head chair was a massive volumetric projection of the fleet logo, with the flags of Yamatai and Taiie on either side. Each chair had a purple cloth over the top with the logo and the name of its intended occupant-save for the larger chair. Each placement had a glass of water, a datapad. The table was a cold ceramic-the symbol of the fleet in the center, but the hummingbird was not engraved, it reflected down onto the table from the window above, the view into space showing the pinkish swirls of the nebula which surrounded them.
As Saito, Kahori and Sui filtered in, along with the others Mayumi took the seat to the right of the central chair, and Yuka beside her.
***
FIVE MONTHS, ONE DAY PRIOR
DISABLED TAIIE NO IORI
Katsuko walked down the corridor, her eyes ahead of her, almost as if to ignore the remains of several of her finest outside of her former office doors. An investigation into the incident was underway; once again the bureaucrats back home would require their answers—want to know what happened to their hardware. The emotional toll of a Taisho was but trivial in such matters, as that the tears held back within her gaze didn't matter to SARA or Command—only to her.
***
FIVE MONTHS PRIOR
YSS AKURO II
SAINT had questioned Corro following the incident on the Iori, as well as several of her other most trusted officers, each of which reported the nature of the questions back to Katsuko. The Taisho read the datapad carefully, her tongue held in her cheek.
Izumi-Chui, Koyanagi-Chujo, please join me in my quarters immediately.