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"I see," you say, realizing its probably just a plot point you're not ready for yet. Maybe they have control of the media or they broadcast it themselves or something. "Did you join the MLDF for a specific reason or just kind of general tiredness of Earth's control?"

"The latter," Trinia answers insincerely. She hesitates and then sighs. "No, thats not the only reason. The truth is, I thought someday I would be able to find and even be the runner of Jehuty." Again with her Jehuty worship.

"You never did tell me why you have such admiration for this fr...for Jehuty."

"Sure, I did. When I told you to 'show me my heroine in action', remember?" You don't say anything for a moment, which she accurately takes to mean she's lost you. "..my father..was one of the people who built her. He was working on linking up the more mechanical AIs with the main one, ADA, so it could control smoother. But just after he finished, BAHRAM attacked my home colony, Antillia. They even made it a point to attack Res. Block S02, where I lived. I was so scared when I saw those Raptors and that Frame with the the glowing ring. But Anubis..." You hear the faint sound of her shivering before she continues, her quieter tone making it clear that the ghost of that day is haunting her at the moment. "...that monster scared me so bad, I couldn't even run away. I really thought BAHRAM was going to kill us all. Until Jehuty showed up and fought them off." You can tell she's getting a smile back, now. "She was amazing! Just watching her fly and fight with such grace gave me reason to hope we would see tomorrow!

"After that, though, dad and I left Antillia for the surface of Mars. He saw how close we came to falling into Europa and didn't like that our lives depended on one shaft. Everything was fine for a few years, but then BAHRAM attacked my hometown again. Worse, the guys who were supposed to be helping us were doing as much damage as the bad guys! It wasn't as bad as Anubis, but the fear I felt was so consuming, there was really no reason to think I wasn't going to die."

"Then Jehuty showed up to save the day," you half-ask, piecing together that she was talking about the event from 2nd Runner. You smile a little as you recall having gotten a flawless score on that one pretty regularly once you got to keep Zero Shift.

"That's right," Trinia continues, her voice giving away that shes reliving the best part of that, too. "Not only did she take out all the Spiders, she even stopped the trigger-happy LEVs without destroying them or hurting the pilots! It was really inspiring."

"Is that why you pilot Menrva?"

"Yes. I tried to make her as close to Lady Jehuty as possible, but after dad died, he took all his genius with him. I do like my Frame, but Jehuty will always be my favorite."

You look at her display for a moment and mute the transmission. "ADA, can I...give Jehuty to Trinia?"

[Not advised. While there is nothing in place to stop you from letting her into the cockpit, giving Jehuty to another character will cause a fatal problem in the programming and the game will crash. With your brain linked to the LyfLyk the way it is, this has a 98.48% probability of causing some degree of brain damage to the user's body.]

"Damn. I guess I'll have to get her some other way." You un-mute the transmission.

"Why did you mute yourself? What were you talking about," Trinia asks, probably more interested in how ADA behaves around you than in your part of the conversation.

"What I was getting you for Christmas," you smirk, half at the joke and half at how quick you thought of it. "You wanted lingerie, right?"

"We-we're almost to the base," Trinia stammers shyly.