Memories: Lambda, Taion, and Nimue

Cliffs higher than the clouds boundaried the valley, where steps of giant, long waterfall splashed on the lake below, creating misty vapor that shrouded its leg. Plants grown horizontally hung between the waterfall, and to both sides. A huge Agnian Ferronis stood with its two legs on the same level as the lake. On an island in front of it, several soldiers could be seen standing and communicating.

An Agnian, gelled spiky short hair, some remnants of his hair cut short by his ears, checking his iris, "... So, split into 3 units, our main troops go wide, and first to make contact withdraws...? What are you, a coward?"

Behind him stood a female soldier, young, seemingly having cat-ear-shaped hair, grew to her neck. At her left, a blue-haired Agnian, both ears with cyan crystals. They were checking their irises. Directly in front of him stood Taion, which the guy directed his speech to; and to Taion's right, a brown-skinned smooth long hair tied to a pony-tail boy, also checking his irises. A nurse-hat indigo-haired girl with some cyan-like horn, young, stood behind Taion.

Young Taion wasn't provoked by his remarks, "What was that?"

"Huh?" He replied blandly, a head taller than Taion.

Taion's body leaned forward, ardently pressed for more, "I asked you what you said! You think I'm scared, is that it?! I'll have you know my plan is textbook!"

The brown skin guy came forward and, with his arms, pushed him backward, "Drop it, Taion."

"...Let go!" Taion sniped at him, then he continued to speak to the gelled-hair, "Colony 13 is a complete enigma. Our data is incomplete."

The Agnian patiently rebutted, "It's just way too cautious, you clod. It's tedious, and it's dull." Then, he pointed to the Ferronis's Flame Clock, asked, "Can you see that?"

"If we don't eat now, we'll starve." The Flame Clock was only a-tenth filled, raising his voice, "We don't have the time to mess around!"

Taion rebutted, "What does-"

He cut Taion, lowering back his tone, "Look, Taiky-boy... I mean, we're Iron Lambda, yeah? The colony led by Commander Isurd. And this is some no-name backwater. We hit from the side, and we hit hard. Am I wrong?"

Taion scoffed for a while, lowering his head, floundered.

The guy pressed on, "What we need is momentum! Gotta play hard to win big!" He left Taion speechless.

In a tent room, lit by standing lights. Taion, with his dull face, stood while a female's voice sounded, "Right, I see..."

A female standing front-right of Taion was checking her iris. She had a clover-shaped brown string tied to her chest and beside her skirt. She had indigo hair, indigo iris, half of her forehead covered by hair, while the other part had 2 cyan translucent ice crystal pikes grew out like a horn. The crystal like structure also covered her palm and half of her arm adjoining her palm. She continued, "One team draws the sentries away, then the main force can strike en masse, where the flank will be left loosely defended."

On the map,¹ four blue dots on one side drawing many triangles² away to the right of the map, and there were three other blue dots to the left of the map. As she spoke, the three blue dots on the left moved towards a large triangle at the top left, probably Kevesi's ferronis. The four blue dot engaged with the smaller triangles following them on the right. "Seems optimal."

The girl stood in front of a table. Seated behind the table was a guy, probably Commander Isurd, scruffy-haired. The girl turned to Taion, "Is that right, Taion?"

Taion wasn't focusing, softly replied after the initial 'what is happening', "Huh-? Yes. Correct."

There was a moment of silence as their eyes met. "All right. If that's your opinion, we'll approve it. Yes, Isurd?" She turned to face the commander behind the table.

We can see there was two blue lines that drew like tears down both side of his face, extending from the midpoint of his eyes towards his neck. It continued above on his forehead, joined with a dip at the middle, with an "I" or "1" above it. He agreed, "Yes. If you say it'll work, I trust you. Happy, Taion?"

"Y-yes..." Taion weakly replied.

An Agnian soldier entered the tent at this moment, drawing their attention, "Commander, Strategist. It's almost time. The new Consul should be arriving from the Castle soon."

Isurd replied, "Of course. On my way."

The girl took out a time-showing machine that looked like a stopwatch with a cover from the back of her pocket, "My, that time already?" It was showing 9 o'clock. As Isurd walked to the front from behind the table, he prompted, "Nimue, why are you still using that gizmo?"

Nimue rebutted, "Now, that's not very polite, Isurd. This mechanical 'gizmo' is much more precise than the Iris clock... And unaffected by the black fog. Right, Taion?"

Taion, still lost in his thought, he stuttered back, "Huh? R-right...!" Their eyes met for a moment, the commander smiled for a while as he walked off, Nimue followed behind, and the soldier followed, exiting the tent. Taion saw them off.

In absolute darkness, someone wearing a Kevesi suit with a helmet, his eyes leaves a red trail as he moved, fired something at a distance. It landed in front of some Agnian soldiers, creating purple fog (Maybe poison? Certainly not black fog.) that blocked their vision and their oxygen intake. An Agnian soldier, holding his twin blades, cried out, "I can't see a thing! Seargeant?! Where are you?! Seargeant?!" He looked around him as he spoke.

"Wha... What's going on?!" A Kevesi soldier moved behind an Agnian soldier as he was still figuring out the situation, drew out his blade, and stuck it on him. His 'lives' escaped immediately. Other soldiers, one by one, were no different.

"Agh!" More and more soldiers die, only one with twin blades managed to ran out of the thick purple fog, mixed with 'lives'. As he exit the fog, he fell to the ground, his blades sheathed. Kevesi soldiers watched him struggled, slowly approaching from behind. As he tried to crawl away, the soldier arrived and stuck his blade onto him. He immediately returned to the Queen.

Agnian soldiers ran through a platform, arrived at the artificial bank of a gushing stream. They turned and faced the other direction. Purple smoke engulfed the distant area. We could see man-made structure in the huge cavern, seemingly a mine. Nimue and Taion was between the team.

Nimue turned and faced Taion, "There should be an exit through the southern water vein. Head straight for that."

Taion: "And you, Ma'am?"

"We'll hold the line here, keep them occupied."

Taion stomped forward, pugnaciously stared at her, "Begging your pardon, that's idiocy. And certain death!"

"Taion..." She took few steps forward and put both her hands on Taion's shoulders.

"You can't..."

"You all still have a future. Until the day of your Homecoming... Please, just live." Then, she held up his right hand, "And here..." She put the stopwatch into his hands.

Taion was afraid, "I-I couldn't...!" He looked up at Nimue, "I won't! Don't do this, ma'am!"

"Listen. I need you to live, Taion. You must! Flee for the colony!" She was smiling at him, he felt he's gonna lost something in this moment, his mouth wide opened, dumbstruck.

Nimue turned and dashed into the distance, several faceless soldiers followed behind. The young soldiers, the brown skinned pony-tail guy from earlier shouted, "Taion, get moving! Hurry!"

Taion snapped, "How?! How can I?!" He was still looking at where Nimue left, his hands still held the stopwatch. The young soldier with her ears crystal left, the pony-tail soldier grabbed Taion's by his left arm, dragged him along, "Taion!"

"Ma'am!" Taion shouted back, her hands stretched as if to reach Nimue.³

They jumped into the gushing current. As Taion emerged from underwater, as he was being washed with the current towards an opening, probably a waterfall, shouted with despair, "Ma'am! Nimue!"

A light came on, a Moebius wearing a feathered cape appeared, "Shouldnt've put so much stock in your Irises, K." He had a "horn" structure that stick out behind his helmet, like the motorcycle exhaust pipes, and some "earrings" that hung at the middle of the horn. "That is what you get!"

The moebius with a W on his head rebutted, "It's just bad luck. The plan was sound. If not for the black fog."

Ok, not a single horn, but double horn, the first moebius, looking from this angle. It looked like the moebius Noah and Mio first fought to the translator, "It's all about the skinfeel. You've only got eyes up front. That's why K lost. Sounds, the air, breathing... When you can feel all that, you don't need the Iris."

A female moebius, tall hat like that of a chef, and a fat ring wrapped around her neck, "And for all that, you still slunk back, tail between legs. Are you forgetting that fact?"

That fat moebius with fan-like structure sticking from his eyebrow teased, "Hehehehehehe, He's awful forgetful, isn't he? Huh!⁴"

The bull moebius crossed his hands, rebutted, "So? I'm still breathing, ain't I? I had a ball with them kids, right until I had to scarper."

The snakehead Medusa moebius came online, "Excuses are ten a penny."

The cowhead took a step forward at the medusa, "What are you implying...?"

"'Scuse me...?" A joker hat walked into the scene, "Is this a private party, or can I interject?" (S)He⁵ continued, "I was thinking I might head out alone next. Is that allowed?"

The cowhead interjected, folded his arms, "You wanna see with your own Iris, eh?"

"Pretty much."

Then, (s)he put his/her hands on the back of his/her neck, in a relaxed posture, "Plus there's Isurd in Colony Lambda, right? It'll be an extremely amusing situation. Don't you think?" Then, (s)he put his/her hands down, "Yeah. We'll have fun. I'm sure."

The cowhead first nodded in agreement, the lights went dark. Others followed to agree before leaving. He turned to his back before the lights went out.

Footnotes:

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1: Surprisingly, flame clock showed gauge half-filled, doesn't seem to fit the previous scene.

2: One counted seven.

3: He probably kept the stopwatch not in the scene, otherwise, it would had dropped if not, given he reached his hands out palms wide opened, facing down.

4: This sounded with the Chinese "fourth tone", rather than "second tone".

5: Some words are male-ish, other words were spoken feminine. The gender, hence, can't be determined via the voice alone.