Departure from the Nest
Sosa "Rabe?"
She entered the hospital room, but Rabe was gone. The attending physician sighed and headed up to the facility's rooftop. A cold wind swept in. Amid the ashen sky, thick snowflakes were falling. Right in the middle of that scene, at the edge of the rooftop, sat a girl in white on a wheelchair, gazing at the desolate factory landscape. Her fragile form seemed like it could flicker out at any moment, yet that very precariousness made her paradoxically beautiful. She exuded a strange mystique, like a mayfly's ephemeral bloom.
The physician approached from behind.
"The temperature's low. You'll catch a cold if you stay out here like this."
"……."
"Catching a cold in your current state could be dangerous."
The physician grabbed the wheelchair and headed toward the rooftop door. It might seem like coercion, but the girl showed no reaction. She'd always been sparse with emotional expression, but after six months of grueling procedures, even that had vanished entirely. Parts of her shriveled brain had been replaced with chrome, several internal organs swapped for artificial ones. Her right eye was completely nonfunctional, blood still seeping out nonstop, now wrapped in bandages.
...Essentially, she was a corpse that barely breathed.
As the physician wheeled her along, she glanced at the view Rabe had been staring at. Why gaze at such a barren landscape? It couldn't be because she liked it. Just looking at it dried the soul. What could possibly be appealing about it? Of course, whether she liked it or not, the girl's face remained blankly vacant, so her true intentions were unknowable.
Thud. Thud.
Walking in silence, the physician suddenly spoke up.
"Are you really leaving?"
Rabe nodded. Having spent some time with her, the physician knew she gave up surprisingly quickly if pushed too hard. She probably would have resigned herself swiftly even now if Hermann and the physician had forcibly blocked her exit. They could even remotely control her Nexus boarding. But that would leave her rotting like a corpse, withering away slowly, so they refrained.
Still, for someone who fought like a demon with such steely resolve, it wasn't quite that. A peculiar temperament.
'Before piloting the Nexus, she was just a powerless child, so she must have been forced to yield often.'
The physician speculated thus, but it didn't fully explain things. Against enemies, she was anything but resigned—she asserted herself with lethal ferocity. Maybe she was unexpectedly soft on personal attachments. Only she herself knew the details.
"Sigh…."
The physician gazed quietly at the back of the girl's head and said,
"If you're set on leaving, there's nothing we can do. We won't force you. Stay as long as you want."
Hermann's debt had been fully cleared with the request six months ago that left her like this. No emotional or material ties bound her here anymore. They wanted to hold her back, but there was nothing left they could rightfully do.
* * *
Six months.... Honestly, it was a shock. I'd been asleep that long?
'Well, not completely asleep. I kept passing out and waking up repeatedly.'
A dull fog hung heavy in my head. My body felt like it wasn't mine.... An overwhelming sense of unreality dominated the present before my eyes. Once again, I craved the Nexus.
But if so, wouldn't it be the same as before? Hermann and the physician had spoken gravely of serious issues, but I hadn't changed. So I decided to leave Nest as planned.
From the news of the past six months, it seemed the players had made their mark. Pushing the story forward, you could say. They'd crippled the leadership of the Alliance that B2B belonged to, contributing to its collapse from loss of unity. It was a late Chapter 1 mission. For reference, the Alliance was a coalition of corporations—different from subsidiaries, but too complex to explain, so most lumped it under "megacorp."
Anyway.
'Six months is a long time.'
The rising star had settled into the ranks as a solid player. Meanwhile, I'd stagnated at the bottom fringes, treated as a has-been rising star. With six months of inactivity, they probably thought I was dead. Corporate mercenaries had attacked, after all—records would exist.
'Whatever, doesn't matter if they think I'm dead or not....'
What other news was there? Right. I'd also heard from Hermann about Nest's situation over the past six months. The mission where I'd fought the player and Scarab before getting wrecked was the trigger—another corp invading Nest. I'd taken them both out back then, averting immediate damage, but….
'My defeat itself was the problem.'
Not to brag, but I might have been Nest's main defensive force. Nexus pilots aren't that common, and a single Nexus has outstanding solo suppression power. So the corps wouldn't miss that golden opportunity, sending follow-up invasion forces relentlessly. Nest might have even fallen.
But when I woke, Nest stood firm.
'No invasion forces for six months, he said.'
It defied common sense. Why spend big on ranked pilots for an invasion, then stop? Too contrived to say they lost the chance; there had to be some other scheme. No clue what, but at least Nest hadn't crumbled while I was comatose. Small mercy.
That was the rundown while I'd been down.
'Then... time to go.'
Nothing tied me to Hermann anymore. Debt cleared with the final request, no other entanglements. If a faction collapsed without me, it deserved to. No sense of duty or obsession to keep working for Nest.
Yeah, time to leave unburdened. About two weeks since waking. My body would stay crippled for life—more recuperation seemed pointless. So I decided to board the Nexus.
Thankfully, it had been repaired over the six months and stored in Nest's hangar.
'Grateful for that.'
Trembling, I rose from the wheelchair. Sensations were numb, like moving a wooden log. Struggling into the cockpit, a low hum suddenly buzzed in my ears. Scanning my blurry vision, I spotted someone behind—a silhouette and color matching Hermann.
"Leaving now?"
"No, not exactly…."
"Then why board the Nexus?"
"Just... to regain some sensation."
Hermann fell silent. Tilting my head to look at him, I saw him nod as if understanding.
"Fair enough. Six months dormant. Take your time with rehab, then."
"Yeah…."
Thankfully, Hermann didn't press further. Any lingering unease in my heart vanished as I climbed into the Nexus.
But once aboard….
I habitually booted the simulator but couldn't do anything.
'What now.'
Not wondering what to do in the sim. Turning it on was pure ingrained habit, thoughtless routine. What occupied me was what to do after leaving Nest. A thought from sometime back, right before that final mission launch.
What would I do outside Nest?
'I'd resolved to chase my desires all along.'
But I had to know what those desires were. I'd always seen myself as an idealist. Yet after awakening in this world, I'd compromised with reality for so long. Even after meeting Hermann, more compromises, sidelining ideals until I'd forgotten what they even were.
'Did I ever have any?'
Whatever. Didn't matter if not; fine if I remembered someday. For now, I'd try anything. I connected to the network.
Click.
Linked the neural port, downloading Nexus data straight to my brain. I couldn't even read a simple monitor screen anymore. Had to ingest info directly.
Online, an alert popped up immediately, drawing my puzzlement.
"…?"
No relationships built—no reason for messages. I'd expected an empty inbox, so this new mail surprised me. But only briefly. As a merc, promo emails from corps weren't odd.
Opening the inbox, I jolted again.