act15d5

2:42 P.M. \ Cloudy

Rim Billiton Frontier, Catastrophe Warning Zone

Got your seatbelts fastened?

Slow down...

Looks like we're all good. Let's hit the road!

If you aren't going to worry about the equipment in the back, at least give those of us who are sitting back here some thought!

Yeah, this engine's sound is banging! I love these emergency missions. They always let us have the best stuff!

Right, and if you break it, it'll cost you an entire year's salary to pay it back. Also, watch how much power you're using.

The hurricane's estimated to form in as soon as twenty hours from now. If we don't hurry up and get out of the place before the Catastrophe's here, we're gonna get buried in a whole bed of sand and Active Originium.

Besides, we've got two extra tanks, and we have two Casters here. No need to worry about energy consumption. Am I right, little Caster sitting in the back?

Yeah... I kind of wish I had a driver's license, though. If I could drive myself there in a dune buggy, I could've gotten there much faster, and I wouldn't have to bother you two.

Sorry, but that's not how it works.

Huh? Why's that?

Oh, right, this is your first time on one of these rescue missions, right?

There's so many ways that these field ops away from the nomadic cities can go wrong, there's no way they'll ever let you go on these missions on your own. It's always a good idea to have a few helping hands.

You know what they say. 'All deployments to Catastrophe Warning Zones must always be accompanied by a Catastrophe Messenger to address any unexpected situations.'

Besides, we're here because of a distress signal. It's encrypted the way the towns in the Rim Billiton outskirts do it, too. Phew... feels kinda complicated, y'know.

Is it because the signal is from your countrymen...?

Not really.

Well, maybe a little bit. Rim Billiton is... hmm... I wonder how I should tell you—

Don't think too much about it. There's a ditch up ahead.

Whoa?!

Uh-oh, watch out. Don't bite your tongue. Sorry, we ain't got much time. Giving you guys the best experience isn't really my top priority right now.

Perhaps you should've turned down this mission, then...

S-Sorry! It's all because I insisted...

Well... This is not your fault. We have a certain Catastrophe Messenger who jumped up from his seat and claimed everything would be fine with him as chaperone to blame.

Even if I didn't come, someone else would still have tagged along!

Ditch up ahead! Watch out!

Urgh!

Ah... Um, thanks!

I've got to say, though. I know we got that signal amplifier installed on your weapon, but I sure didn't expect to see it prop someone up.

If it comes down to it, I can even hook it up with a rope to tie an enemy down.

Are you serious?

Do you want to find out?

I'll pass. That thing's gonna give me an electric shock and send every strand of my hair pointing up toward the sky. Maybe you should look into how to shell edamames with it. Really market the things you like, you know?

Let's get back on topic. Greyy, mind taking a look at the gauge on the box next to you?

Yep! It's still in the green range. It's getting really close to the yellow range, though, and it reads... uh... there are a lot of values here. Which one should I be looking at...?

Oh, you don't need to look at those. We've barged into this place already anyway. It doesn't look like there are any Catastrophe storm clouds forming, and the road up ahead looks okay, so as long as...

Hold right there. Let's not jinx ourselves, especially not on the kind of mission we're on.

Oh, come on. You're sitting right behind a Catastrophe Messenger, and you're worried about jinxes?

We Catastrophe Messengers are basically walking jinxes.

What makes you say that?!

Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, I thought all Catastrophe Messengers were all nice people that warn others before bad things happen...?

That's where the problem lies.

Cities and towns can't afford to take a direct hit from Catastrophes, so they have to pack up and leave as soon as they receive the Messengers' warnings.

The people who live in the nomadic towns need to put the brakes on much of their entertainment, if not their normal lives and their work as well.

They need to start working overtime to plan out an evacuation route, reroute their power from their entertainment and public facilities, and figure out how to tear apart and reconnect all their city blocks.

Their daily lives become disrupted all because of the news these 'ominous' Catastrophe Messengers bring.

If they actually observe a Catastrophe afterwards, the whole town will celebrate how they managed to dodge a bullet.

They'll be so preoccupied with their celebrations that they end up forgetting who it was that risked getting Infected with Oripathy just to monitor the abnormalities out in the field to save their lives.

And that's just your best case scenario.

Now, suppose the town evacuated successfully, and after weeks, maybe even months have gone by, they still haven't heard anything about the Catastrophe happening.

As time goes on, everyone in town will start to hold the messenger responsible for disrupting their daily lives.

And that will go on until the Catastrophe Messenger finally predicts a Catastrophe correctly years later, or perhaps until the Messenger is finally tired of all the contempt he faces and leaves for another town or sign up for dangerous missions like the Contingency Contracts.

Ehh, Ayers, things aren't always that bad.

All the towns in Rim Billiton treat Messengers pretty well. In some places, you don't even have to worry about losing your job just cause you have Oripathy. At most, you just don't get to live that comfortable of a life.

Well, has anyone ever shaken hands with you all those times you, out of the goodness of your heart, left the ship to warn the towns in the Catastrophe warning zones to evacuate?

Now that's not quite right. Why would anyone shake hands with others for no reason?

Just be glad you're in Rim Billiton. You don't have any crystals on your body, and the people there trust the mining teams' Messengers. Elsewhere, you'd be lucky if no one throws rocks at you.

(Maybe we should talk about something else, y'know?)

Oh, it's okay. I think all this information will come in handy. Please tell me more!

You really should've thought about going to some Yan city to become a driver, Leon.

So that you could be a driver's bodyguard? Actually, what kind of drivers get to hire bodyguards? Armored truck drivers, perhaps?

Pffh... haha, but I don't think armored trucks have backseats for passengers to uh... what's the word for that... 'chew the fat?'

Oh, you know that saying, huh?

Yeah! At the really big nomadic cities, there are lots of people who drive cars around for a living. Some of the Yan drivers are really talkative, too, right?

I learned about this from the teachers at Rhodes Island. They like to tell us interesting facts sometimes to liven the classroom up.

But they don't really like to go into... the lives of the Infected during class.

I guess that's because a lot of us in class are Infected... and, maybe just like my parents, the teachers don't want to bring this up to the classmates who aren't prepared to face harsh truths like these.

Well, they probably don't want to rub their noses in it in front of everyone.

I think there's more to it than that. You simply can't claim to understand the Infected's predicament just because you learn about it in class, and the teachers know that.

The children who come from families rich enough to have them treated at medical facilities probably don't even know what exactly the Infected are before they become one themselves.

At most, they probably just know them as the 'bad kids' from the quarantine zone that their parents told them not to play with.

In the more affluent cities, there are even critics who complain about the tragedies Infected characters face in dramas and plays, writing them off as the exaggerations of the playwright.

The patrons who frequent the theaters always cry rivers when they see the noble and rich die for the non-Infected poor, but they laugh at cliches like the Infected getting swindled out of their savings for some miracle drug they ultimately overdose on.

To the rich, the Infected might as well be hooligans who supposedly live in disgusting places. The hardships the Infected face are like some exotic legends and fairy tales. They might even think the Infected only have themselves to blame for getting Infected.

And who can blame them? We all know only what we know. Anything we don't know might as well not exist in the whole world.

Just like how some people question why the Laterano guns shoot actual Originium instead of Arts energy beams, without even knowing guns that shoot the latter are just imitations.

Eh? There are people who don't know?

Hahaha, this just shows how people in the know can't possibly understand those who don't know. I mean, you've met all those carefree Lateranos and seen their guns.

Any caster should figure out right away the imitation Arts Units just take after the originals' shapes. They save their casters the trouble of having to aim and focus their Arts in exchange for a reduced output.

The Laterano guns are probably the exact opposite, though. They want precision and control and not a high energy output. At the very least, that's my guess—

You used your Arts to analyze the structure, didn't you?

Hey, stop ratting me out!

I think I can understand. We casters are always curious about each other's Arts.

Ahhem! Stop! Let's talk about something else! I don't want anyone getting curious about a certain someone's electrical Arts just because of this.

Tsk.

Ehehe.

Beyond the car's dark tinted windows, the desolate landscape appears to be nothing more than a murky cloud of darkness.

Every now and then, a few wild beasts can be seen running across the field. A feeling of unease brews within the Perro; he knows the beasts are very sensitive to the Catastrophes.

Mmm... but I'm not always just curious about things that I don't know about...

I... I want to know more about what everyone at Rhodes Island is working for!

Uhh... there is a lot of text and video data I can reference in both the operator's manual and lectures, but I still want to take a good look myself. I want to try it out myself!

Is that why you insisted on going on this mission?

Come on, Ayers. That's a little straight to the point, no?

It's no problem! Ever since I was brought here by the rescue operators, I've always felt like everyone's been a little overprotective of me...

Whether it's what's going on outside the landship and back home... and also what's going on with my parents... I just...

I just want to be able to help everyone!

Hm? Haven't you been helping take care of the landship's power equipment to help pay for your medical fees?

I've been doing that... but still...