You can't forget (Day 6, LN)

[Yuri Creed]

Yuri Creed has made his way up to the briefing room, unable to settle, sleep proving as elusive as peace of mind. Taking a seat in the shadowy briefing room, he activated the holo tank, plugging in data from the various mechs, recreating a rough estimate of the battles of the last few days.

He played them.

And then played them again.

Taking it in. Taking notes, and then just watching the little figure of himself shoot Hiroyuki in the head after his seppuku.

The room was dark, hiding his face.

If anyone had been there to see it, he would've been very glad of that fact.

[Felicity]

She hadn't been expecting the briefing room to be in use when she headed up to the top deck. Curiosity had gotten the better of her and she'd peeked around the entryway to see who was inside. Dressed in just her hoodie and some socks, she was carrying her noteputer. Spotting the Major she debated between leaving him be and waiting inside in case he'd be done so. She needed to talk to him at some point, but it was late and she hadn't yet thought through exactly what she wanted to say. Or how. She would probably speak to Nora first if she could.

[Yuri Creed]

Yuri finshed another review, and then leaned back with a groan.

After a moment of quiet, he glanced at the door. Composing himself with one hand rubbing his eyes, he inquired

"Sergeant. I hadn't seen you there... did you need something?"

[Felicity]

I got spotted! "Eehm..." She scrambled to think of something. Her brain wasn't cooperating. It was late and she was tired. Felicity cleared her throat and stepped inside. "I was going to use the holo tank, but then I saw you using it Major and I didn't want to bother you." She noted that he looked tired too. "I wasn't trying to sneak around."

If she had been she probably wouldn't have been spotted.

[Yuri Creed]

"I don't remember accusing you of sneaking."

He offered a weak smile, resting his elbows on his knees, leaning forward. "I believe I asked if you needed anything?"

[Felicity]

Well, good.

Seeing as he also didn't remember her saying she wanted to use the holo tank, Felicity took that to mean he was asking for something more. She shifted her left arm to rub her right. "W-well, there is one thing. Actually, there're probably a few things we should talk through, such as organised debriefings and information sharing, but the main thing on my mind since yesterday has been my mech. The Phoenix that was blown to bits by that aerospace fighter you shot down." She paused to gauge his reaction. "I mean, I'm glad to have a temporary replacement, but even one of the mechtechs said I should ask about compensation. I only ejected in time because of blind chance. Just spotted a proximity alert flashing seconds before." She rubbed her arm again before squeezing it tight. "I can speak to miss Crossette if that's what I'm meant to do."

[Yuri Creed]

Yuri gazed at her, expression a mixture of compassion and incredulity.

"Are you saying I shot it into you on purpose?"

Raising an eyebrow, he added, "I've heard some crazy things after near misses - but Sergeant, that might take the cake."

[Felicity]

Her noteputer was set down on a chair. "No, I'm not saying you shot it into me on purpose."

She crossed her arms as he strongly implied she was crazy. Nora was much easier to speak to. She tried to carefully lay out the facts. "You just said you shot it into me. It's a fact you shot it down and it landed on my mech, and that you didn't give me any warning. I'm not crazy. I'm not blaming you, but I am lucky to be alive and Kiara was wrecked." Felicity felt very uncomfortable at how aggressively defensive he instantly became. Her voice was wavering as she thought it had been a bad time to bring this up. "I am saying she was lost in action through no fault of my own. Or are you saying it was my fault?"

[Yuri Creed]

"I'm saying it can't be anyone's fault, except maybe the fool in the cockpit of the fighter."

He gestured for her to sit down.

"You did lose a mech, and one that you had some attachment to. I understand that isn't easy - the first time it happened to me, I was pretty shaken up."

Glancing at the holotank, he tapped a few buttons, switching from the battle reports to mech inventory.

"I couldn't exactly warn you if I didn't know it was going to happen, Sergeant - if I had known, I wouldn't have shot it. I suppose the difference is I see how lucky you are to be alive, and I feel grateful for that, while you are focused on the lost machine."

Expanding the inventory and roster, he said, simply. "We got through this conflict with only a handful of Infantry casualties. You may not have seen enough combat to realize how astonishingly lucky that was - our skill played a role, don't get me wrong, but still... this was a victory. A huge one. Losing a mech hurts, I understand that, but you're alive to hurt, and unlike some, I value my pilots more than my machines." Pointing to the list of mechs, he went on, "I'd assumed you spoke with Nora, but if you want to take any of the other mechs from the inventory, you're welcome to do so."

[Felicity]

"The pilot was definitely most to blame." She concedes, as that was reasonable.

At the gesture she sits down next to her noteputer. She listened as he brought up his own experiences and switched to the mech inventory. She was very familiar with this information after spending quite some time looking through it herself. "Ok, you didn't know. I understand that."

Felicity didn't realise how lucky they were, no. To her they could have done better. She could have done better. The whole situation could have been better. She was conflating that with how lucky there were in terms of low casualties.

"I haven't yet. There hasn't been time. I just knew I could still fight and we had machines that worked, so I went with one. I was expecting a call to arms the whole time so I spent it trying to learn to pilot the Valkyrie..."