Yuren sat in his quarters aboard the Eisendrache. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be deep in thought. Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. He looked up to see Lina standing at his door, looking at him with a serious expression. "Yes? Do you have something to say?"
"I wanted to ask..." she began, but trailed off.
"What is it? Is something bothering you?"
"It's just... I'm worried. About you."
Yuren raised an eyebrow. "Why would you be worried about me?"
Lina took a step closer, "I know everything so far has been weighing heavily on your mind. Seeing you use resonance the way you do..." She sighed, "That's how two of our previous commanders died. We've told you before that resonance at high density is hazardous to the human body-"
"But I feel fine." Yuren cut her off. "In fact, I've never felt better. My connection with the resonance grows stronger everyday."
Lina stared at him for a moment before sighing, "I heard that before." She ruffled her hair in frustration, "I need to tell you a story of a battle that happened a long time ago."
"Alright," Yuren replied, sitting down in his chair and gesturing for Lina to do the same. She did and continued her story. "Long before the war with the Republic and even before the public adoption of androids. We were not the 701st, but a single unnamed unit of 15. Tasked to subdue a Meteorn codenamed Stasis, known to other Meteorn as Hyphilene, a Meteorn with the ability to neutralize resonance to a significant degree or to slow down the movement and actions of a living target, or even completely freeze a person, trapping them in a single point in space-time."
"So it's a type of Meteorn that can affect physical space like Esotonia..." Yuren mused.
Lina nodded, "A difficult enemy to face. We didn't expect her abilities and in our first engagement, the only three left were me, Jia, and Garra. While we did ultimately defeat her, we didn't understand the nature of Meteorn cores and that they could rebuild their bodies."
"You're telling me she'll be back?" Yuren said with a slight frown.
"I can't be certain of that. But what I can tell you is that a weapon the Empire has made had taken on some of the features of her armor. And the cost of activating that weapon takes someone with an Exalted's level of resonance to fire." She paused to take a breath.
"Your first commander fired it?"
"Yes. it was used to against the calamity class Meteorn. Why it worked, I don't know. But even though the commander said he was fine after using so much resonance, his body rapidly deteriorated three days later. He died on the fourth. Albeit one exception the Ministry executed, Every commander we've had has had some form of complication due to the toll resonance has on the body and it always ended the same way." She explained, her eyes staring into Yuren's own.
"Does the Empire still have that weapon?" Yuren asked, his tone serious and his gaze fixed on the android.
"No, I believe the weapon itself was lost at the bottom of the ocean." Lina replied.
Yuren thought momentarily, a weapon that needed a lot of resonance to fire. With the average person's resonance factor in the range of 0.04ppm to 0.09ppm then rather gruesomely, they'd potentially need thousands of people to fire it again if they had it.
"Lina, it's okay. If Esotonia and the others words are completely true, which I'll admit I still don't know if I can accept it... I'm... I'm a Meteorn as well." He said softly, a smile forming on his lips.
"I've seen you do incredible things but I can't help but worry..." Lina sighed heavily and looked at the ground, her eyes full of concern. "There are just too many uncertainties to be sure you'll be okay. You could have the power of a Meteorn and yet your body is still human, or close enough."
"I get it, don't worry. I'll watch myself." Yuren assured her with a nod. "So... you Jia and Garra were among the first androids? Particularly one with cores?" He changed the topic.
"Yes. We were." Garra's voice came from the doorway, "Didn't we agree to leave that story in the past, Lina?"
"Garra, please-"
"That's the one thing I didn't want to remember. But since you told him that he's going to ask about others things." The crimson-haired woman's tone was sharp. "Do you want to continue this story, Yuren? Argentia is actually the second oldest nation behind the Kingdom and long before the formation of the Imperial Union, we're were supposed to be the only ones. And that weapon was never supposed to be brought up again. The Nova Genesis Project is a recent thing, it was Amalia who somehow dug up the process and refined it enough to make 485 more androids."
"Garra!" Lina yelled, the two staring at each other for a moment.
"Amalia found our stasis containers and implanted our and Velryn's information into the 701st's data when she made this unit, Don't you ever found it strage that a supposedly elite unit went used for two years? And this so called successful unit was primarily used against the Meteorn and not the Empire's enemies? You never found Velryn's data odd or that his age and birth information is no where to be found? Also, you wanna know why the majority of us are female? Us three originals were made from the core of a Tyrant class named-"
"Garra! Stop!" Lina grabbed Garra's collar and shoved her against the wall, her hands balled into fists.
"Get your fucking hands off me." She snarled. "I will fucking break you."
Yuren quickly got up and placed a hand between them and separated them. "Enough." He said firmly, "Just tell me everything."
"The Tyrant was called Xicilia. The rest of them? Hyphilene. The last 50 that arrived before we skipped out on the Empire? You."
"Me?" Yuren looked at the two of them with confusion.
"The last 50 of the 701st roster were all added sometime after you had entered the military academy. All of your biological information was handed to Amalia on a silver platter. XMV23 through XMV72 were crafted using a blueprint using your core and they're not women either." Garra explained, "They're males and they're powerful, particularly because they had a calamity class as a model."
"I..." Yuren trailed off, not knowing what to say. He looked between the two androids then slowly sat back down and brought a hand to his head, his thoughts racing. He couldn't wrap his mind around this new information.
"I wouldn't put it past the Empire for unearthing the Longinus again. It's better you know. Because that weapon from the first time we fought the metorn just might be pointed at you." Garra finished and left the two alone.
"Yuren?" Lina asked tentatively, her voice soft. She reached out to him but stopped short, her hand hesitantly hovering over his shoulder.
Garra opened the door slightly, "Just so it's clear, He is a Meteorn. Stop questioning that, Lina."
The door shut once more, leaving Lina and Yuren alone in the room. Lina sat in silence, staring at Yuren with a mixture of worry and uncertainty.
"So... you, Garra and Jia are... based off a Tyrant class Meteorn? Xicilia." He spoke, his voice shaky.
"Yes... That is true." Lina answered quietly.
"How many are in the Empire now that use cores made from Meteorn that have been killed?" He asked.
"I don't know..." She answered truthfully, her voice barely audible. She stood up, her gaze distant. "I... I'm going to leave now. I think you need some time to process this." With that, she turned and walked out of the door, her footsteps heavy as she left the room.
Lina stopped as she heard a slamming sound and the sound of things falling over in Yuren's quarters.
She let out a long sigh and leaned against the wall next to the door, "I'm sorry."