“This thing is bigger than I thought,” Yuki remarked as he held a soft blue gem between his fingers, lifting it up to the light. “When it was described to be egg sized, I was thinking small like a robin. Not a large chicken.”
“I never saw myself,” Tiar replied with a shrug. “That was the description they gave me.”
Yuki nodded, his eyes still glued onto the shimmering azure jewel. Though he couldn’t use the jewel’s element, the obvious mana it held was quite sizable. With this one, he now had the four classic elements or so they were called.
‘The Wyvern is in the safe. I wonder where I should put this one,’ he thought. ‘I don’t want to keep multiples together unless it’s together with me.’
“Well, good job everyone,” Yuki said. He placed the jewel on the meeting table and looked around at the people gathered there. “There were a few little complications, but I’m glad to see that you all adapted well and got out relatively safely. Yuna?”
Yuna, who was staring down at her lap, looked up. Her eyes told Yuki that she wasn’t all there.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No,” Yuna replied after a brief pause. “No. Nothing’s wrong.”
“How about your leg? You got hit, correct?”
“Yes. But Zero healed it up for me,” Yuna said. A small smile flashed across her face before her eyes flickered away.
“Mmm. I’m glad to hear that.” Yuki’s eyes rested on her for a little longer before he turned to focus on the others gathered at the table. “Any remarks that anyone wants to share? Observations? Concerns?”
Sarah raised her hand. Yuki raised his eyebrow. It wasn’t often that she would speak during a meeting. Normally she would come to him after in private.
“Yes?” he said, nodding towards her.
“I just have a small question,” Sarah replied with an apologetic smile. “It’s about the security at that lab.”
“Mhm?”
“The last group of five robots that we faced were using lethal force. Why does a lab have such authorization? If I remember correctly, only the law enforcement is given the authorization for such security.”
“Oh, I see,” Yuki nodded. “I understand your confusion. The reason such a lab has such authorization is because it belongs to Mason Inc. and it is contracted with the government for research.”
“How important is their research that they need lethal force?”
“In that particular facility? Quite unimportant for the most part actually,” Yuki shrugged. “They wouldn’t do their more dangerous tests and store their more sensitive data in a location so open. But I think it’s more for the impression. If trying to break into this one little facility can kill or almost kill you, why would you risk trying to go to their even more secure locations?”
“Oh, I understand,” Sarah nodded.
“Anyone else?” Yuki asked. He looked about. “If not, then I’ll be moving on. Because we have some important things to discuss right now.”
He clapped his hands and summoned a holographic screen. With a few taps and swipes, he navigated his files until he pulled up the one he wanted. The one taken from the lab.
“You already know that this mission had two targets,” he began. “The jewel is self explanatory. But one of the most important pieces of information that we lacked before was information related to the suspected weapon that was being developed.”
He selected a few documents from the file and blew them up for everyone to see.
“The lab that we broke into was one of the few that directly dealt with the development of the weapon. Their particular task was the testing of elemental jewels and finding ways to utilize the power of these jewels. What’s important, though, is that since this is one of the few labs that dealt with the weapon, they have access to the database where details about the weapon are stored.”
“And these are those details?” Damian asked, stroking his short beard. “Mind if I take a look at them later?”
“I’m planning to give you a look later,” Yuki replied. “You think I was going to not let our main engineer take a look at schematics and plans?”
“With you, I never really know,” Damian laughed.
“I’ll let you have at the information later, don’t worry,” Yuki repeated. “And to answer the first question, yes, these are the details. A few of them. There are a lot more in that file.”
He waved his hand and most of the documents disappeared into thin air, leaving just one behind. It was a blueprint of a device. The actual entire document spanned for pages and pages, but Yuki had stitched them together into one continuous screen.
“This is the main attraction,” he said, gesturing at the schematics floating in front of him. “These are the actual plans of the weapon.”
Those words sharpened the attention of everyone in the room.
“I’m not certain if these are the final plans or merely a prototype of the weapons,” he continued. “But I can ensure that the weapon will at least look something like this. It would make absolutely no sense for them to hold onto the old designs and research something for the old designs when some else completely is being made.”
With a few more taps, the blueprint floated to the side and he created another screen that laid flat above the meeting table.
“With the plans, Uriel and I have made a model of what we think the weapon would be like in real life.”
Holographic parts appeared on the horizontal screen, combining until a giant facility was formed. At the top of the facility was a giant tube-like structure that was attached to a dome of sorts. It looked more like a telescope than a laser.
“The first thing to note here is the scale of this thing,” Yuki said as he motioned with his hand for the model to spin. “This entire thing is the size of a large power plant. It has multiple rooms that all in some way help support either the operation of the weapon or the functionality. I even found plans for living quarters.”
“For full time crew members,” Akira murmured.
“Exactly,” Yuki nodded. “But other than that, what I want to highlight is the technical parts of the plans. The ones related to the weapon itself.”
Manipulating the model, he isolated the cannon and the main charging room. Then he created a cross section that unveiled the individual parts.
“If you all remembered from our other meetings and briefings, I said that I wasn’t sure if this was going to be one weapon or multiple weapons. That was because of the multiple different types of jewels that were being stockpiled. So now I’m here to announce that it is indeed one singular weapon.”
“Holy. Fuck,” Damian said, his eyes widening as he stared at the cross section. His eyes flickered about as he took in everything. Then he jerked his head towards Yuki. “That’s possible?”
“Oh. You see it already,” Yuki replied with a slight frown. “I was going to get to that part.”
“That’s possible?” Damian repeated, his words coming out slowly.
“It seems so,” Yuki shrugged.
“Fuck. That shouldn’t be possible to do,” Damian muttered. He covered his mouth as he continued staring at the model. “But this makes so much sense. And so simple. How the hell did no one think of this before?”
“I don’t know,” Yuki said. “When I read it, I was surprised as well. The solution was simple, it was actually quite funny. It was like a bad joke.”
“Mind filling the rest of us in on what you two smarties are talking about?” Erica interjected with a smile. “I don’t understand a thing.”
“Ah, yes. What this is about is the nature of the weapon,” Yuki explained. “We know that it is an elemental laser cannon. It was just a matter of what element that laser was going to be. Since Mason Inc. had gathered different jewels of different elements, they had the capacity to create whatever elemental mana they wanted. But, to put it frankly, we were wrong. They aren’t trying to use one singular element.”
“Oh.” Akira’s head went right up, an eyebrow raised. “I think I understand what the two of you were talking about. I don’t like where this is going.”
“Where is it going?” Erica asked, turning to look at Akira.
“Those fuckers aren’t going to pick and choose what element they want,” Damian growled. “They’re going right past that. They found a way to combine all of them together. All the elements into a single elemental mass. And that’s going to be the fucking laser.”
“This thing is bigger than I thought,” Yuki remarked as he held a soft blue gem between his fingers, lifting it up to the light. “When it was described to be egg sized, I was thinking small like a robin. Not a large chicken.”
“I never saw myself,” Tiar replied with a shrug. “That was the description they gave me.”
Yuki nodded, his eyes still glued onto the shimmering azure jewel. Though he couldn’t use the jewel’s element, the obvious mana it held was quite sizable. With this one, he now had the four classic elements or so they were called.
‘The Wyvern is in the safe. I wonder where I should put this one,’ he thought. ‘I don’t want to keep multiples together unless it’s together with me.’
“Well, good job everyone,” Yuki said. He placed the jewel on the meeting table and looked around at the people gathered there. “There were a few little complications, but I’m glad to see that you all adapted well and got out relatively safely. Yuna?”
Yuna, who was staring down at her lap, looked up. Her eyes told Yuki that she wasn’t all there.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No,” Yuna replied after a brief pause. “No. Nothing’s wrong.”
“How about your leg? You got hit, correct?”
“Yes. But Zero healed it up for me,” Yuna said. A small smile flashed across her face before her eyes flickered away.
“Mmm. I’m glad to hear that.” Yuki’s eyes rested on her for a little longer before he turned to focus on the others gathered at the table. “Any remarks that anyone wants to share? Observations? Concerns?”
Sarah raised her hand. Yuki raised his eyebrow. It wasn’t often that she would speak during a meeting. Normally she would come to him after in private.
“Yes?” he said, nodding towards her.
“I just have a small question,” Sarah replied with an apologetic smile. “It’s about the security at that lab.”
“Mhm?”
“The last group of five robots that we faced were using lethal force. Why does a lab have such authorization? If I remember correctly, only the law enforcement is given the authorization for such security.”
“Oh, I see,” Yuki nodded. “I understand your confusion. The reason such a lab has such authorization is because it belongs to Mason Inc. and it is contracted with the government for research.”
“How important is their research that they need lethal force?”
“In that particular facility? Quite unimportant for the most part actually,” Yuki shrugged. “They wouldn’t do their more dangerous tests and store their more sensitive data in a location so open. But I think it’s more for the impression. If trying to break into this one little facility can kill or almost kill you, why would you risk trying to go to their even more secure locations?”
“Oh, I understand,” Sarah nodded.
“Anyone else?” Yuki asked. He looked about. “If not, then I’ll be moving on. Because we have some important things to discuss right now.”
He clapped his hands and summoned a holographic screen. With a few taps and swipes, he navigated his files until he pulled up the one he wanted. The one taken from the lab.
“You already know that this mission had two targets,” he began. “The jewel is self explanatory. But one of the most important pieces of information that we lacked before was information related to the suspected weapon that was being developed.”
He selected a few documents from the file and blew them up for everyone to see.
“The lab that we broke into was one of the few that directly dealt with the development of the weapon. Their particular task was the testing of elemental jewels and finding ways to utilize the power of these jewels. What’s important, though, is that since this is one of the few labs that dealt with the weapon, they have access to the database where details about the weapon are stored.”
“And these are those details?” Damian asked, stroking his short beard. “Mind if I take a look at them later?”
“I’m planning to give you a look later,” Yuki replied. “You think I was going to not let our main engineer take a look at schematics and plans?”
“With you, I never really know,” Damian laughed.
“I’ll let you have at the information later, don’t worry,” Yuki repeated. “And to answer the first question, yes, these are the details. A few of them. There are a lot more in that file.”
He waved his hand and most of the documents disappeared into thin air, leaving just one behind. It was a blueprint of a device. The actual entire document spanned for pages and pages, but Yuki had stitched them together into one continuous screen.
“This is the main attraction,” he said, gesturing at the schematics floating in front of him. “These are the actual plans of the weapon.”
Those words sharpened the attention of everyone in the room.
“I’m not certain if these are the final plans or merely a prototype of the weapons,” he continued. “But I can ensure that the weapon will at least look something like this. It would make absolutely no sense for them to hold onto the old designs and research something for the old designs when some else completely is being made.”
With a few more taps, the blueprint floated to the side and he created another screen that laid flat above the meeting table.
“With the plans, Uriel and I have made a model of what we think the weapon would be like in real life.”
Holographic parts appeared on the horizontal screen, combining until a giant facility was formed. At the top of the facility was a giant tube-like structure that was attached to a dome of sorts. It looked more like a telescope than a laser.
“The first thing to note here is the scale of this thing,” Yuki said as he motioned with his hand for the model to spin. “This entire thing is the size of a large power plant. It has multiple rooms that all in some way help support either the operation of the weapon or the functionality. I even found plans for living quarters.”
“For full time crew members,” Akira murmured.
“Exactly,” Yuki nodded. “But other than that, what I want to highlight is the technical parts of the plans. The ones related to the weapon itself.”
Manipulating the model, he isolated the cannon and the main charging room. Then he created a cross section that unveiled the individual parts.
“If you all remembered from our other meetings and briefings, I said that I wasn’t sure if this was going to be one weapon or multiple weapons. That was because of the multiple different types of jewels that were being stockpiled. So now I’m here to announce that it is indeed one singular weapon.”
“Holy. Fuck,” Damian said, his eyes widening as he stared at the cross section. His eyes flickered about as he took in everything. Then he jerked his head towards Yuki. “That’s possible?”
“Oh. You see it already,” Yuki replied with a slight frown. “I was going to get to that part.”
“That’s possible?” Damian repeated, his words coming out slowly.
“It seems so,” Yuki shrugged.
“Fuck. That shouldn’t be possible to do,” Damian muttered. He covered his mouth as he continued staring at the model. “But this makes so much sense. And so simple. How the hell did no one think of this before?”
“I don’t know,” Yuki said. “When I read it, I was surprised as well. The solution was simple, it was actually quite funny. It was like a bad joke.”
“Mind filling the rest of us in on what you two smarties are talking about?” Erica interjected with a smile. “I don’t understand a thing.”
“Ah, yes. What this is about is the nature of the weapon,” Yuki explained. “We know that it is an elemental laser cannon. It was just a matter of what element that laser was going to be. Since Mason Inc. had gathered different jewels of different elements, they had the capacity to create whatever elemental mana they wanted. But, to put it frankly, we were wrong. They aren’t trying to use one singular element.”
“Oh.” Akira’s head went right up, an eyebrow raised. “I think I understand what the two of you were talking about. I don’t like where this is going.”
“Where is it going?” Erica asked, turning to look at Akira.
“Those fuckers aren’t going to pick and choose what element they want,” Damian growled. “They’re going right past that. They found a way to combine all of them together. All the elements into a single elemental mass. And that’s going to be the fucking laser.”
